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.ÿþ280 architects to the nationof the federal buildings program that had started in the 1930s.A poolof well-known designers and consulting architects, engaged bothpart time and full time, abetted the work of the bureau s still sizeablestaff. 3 A limited number of building projects outside the capital citywere designed by private practitioners selected through competi-tions.Simon continued to serve as supervising architect until 1941.Uponhis retirement, the Federal Architect praised Simon for his leadershipand insistence on quality designs. Louis A.Simon will have a thou-sand or more buildings throughout the land, some bearing his name,some not, which are tokens of his architectural ability.Words con-cerning that ability are relatively ineffectual.It is the buildings them-selves which are the best commentary of his judgement and his ser-vice to the country. 4George Howe, a prominent Philadelphia architect, succeededSimon.Howe had established a national reputation for his work un-dertaken as part of the firms of Mellor, Meigs and Howe; Howe andLescaze; and Howe, Stonorov and Kahn.Howe and Lescaze s workon the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society secured his name in themodern movement in architecture.His work with Stonorov andKahn on government-sponsored housing projects expanded his rep-utation in the public sector.Howe served as supervising architect forthe duration of World War II.Because the war years were not an ac-tive period for traditional federal government buildings, Howe wasunable to explore the possibilities of the position fully.5Two of the most important projects of the early 1940s were theSocial Security Board and the Railroad Retirement Board buildings(figures E.1 and E.2).The two buildings were located on adjacent lotsin the southwest quadrant of the city just south of the Mall.The fwacontended that this location would relieve and disperse traffic con-gestion in the other areas [of the city] and help stimulate widespreadcivic improvements in that section. 6 The buildings, described as inthe modern classic style, were designed with light courts in orderto provide for maximum light and ventilation.7 These buildings weredesigned to relieve the two retirement agencies of severe over-crowding conditions in more than a dozen different locations.However, because of the national emergency, the two buildings wereloaned to the National Defense Advisory Commission and the WarDepartment for the duration of the war.For a location directly behind the Social Security and RailroadRetirement buildings, the Public Buildings Administration designed [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]