Designing the Nation's Capital

In 1901 the United States Senate, inspired by the City Beautiful movement of the late nineteenth century, appointed a commission to formulate a new architectural plan for the development of the nation's capital. Under the leadership of Senator James McMillan of Michigan, the Senate Park Commission brought together three of the country's leading architects and urban planners—Daniel H. Burnham, the former director of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago; landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted ...