The 499 District of Columbia doughboys who died fighting in World War I are getting long overdue salute.
The National Capital Planning Commission approved a $5.2 million project design to restore and renovate the dilapidated memorial on Thursday, the only D.C.-specific memorial on the National Mall. The commission also approved conceptual designs for Washington Canal Park in Southeast D.C.
Cracked, broken and moldy marble would be cleaned and restored, and the World War I Memorial grounds would be expanded and renovated to adhere to the memorial’s original function as a bandstand. When the memorial was finished in 1931, the Marine Corps Band gave regular performances there until 1960.
Designs call for a 50-foot-wide expanse of open lawn circling the memorial to be cleared of vegetation to accommodate an estimated 300 spectators for future memorial performances.
Cracked bluestone pathways will also be widened and repaved, and lights will be installed in the memorial.
The commission has not taken a position on H.R. 482, a bill introduced in the House this January to rededicate the memorial as both the national World War I memorial and a District memorial.
Meanwhile, the Washington Canal Park design, submitted by the Canal Park Development Association, would give a modern update to three blocks along Second Street in a burgeoning area of Southeast.
The blocks sit on the former site of the Washington Canal, a short-lived canal that served as a connection between the Potomac and Anacostia rivers in the early 1800s.
Chris Van Arsdale, executive director of CPDA, said the park would attract more businesses and residents to the already developing community.
“There’s going to be ground-floor retail in most of the buildings surrounding the park,” said Van Arsdale, “and that retail won’t thrive if the park doesn’t draw a lot of folks.”
But designs have already surpassed the $13.5 million grant the CPDA received from the D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Van Arsdale estimates an $18 million total cost based on the design approved by NCPC, which includes a large playing field, a rain garden and a plaza that would accommodate in-ground water fountains in the summer and an ice rink in the winter.
Van Arsdale said CPDA was trying to use new market tax credits through the Treasury Department to raise the millions still needed for the project.
