The National Park Service has revised its plans to redevelop the Tidal Basin region of the National Mall in Washington, DC. The plan zeroes in on West Potomac Park, which Trump picked in May as his preferred site for the planned National Garden of American Heroes. One leading historic preservationist interpreted the plan as a way to create space for the project, reports the Washington Post.
“The plan that we saw is really about making the space for the Garden of Heroes,” Charles A. Birnbaum, founding president and CEO of the nonprofit Cultural Landscape Foundation, told the paper, adding that, however, “the Garden of Heroes is not included in the plan” and that it “feels like a placeholder for something else that’s going to be inserted.” The Cultural Landscape Foundation, headquartered in DC, was established in 1998 to educate the public about the nation’s shared landscape heritage. It calls attention to threatened sites and gives a biennial $100,000 landscape architecture prize.
The development plan, according to a document published by NPS, is meant to address issues including compacted soil, exposed tree roots, flooding of sidewalks, and damage to the area’s famed cherry trees. An updated concept for the northwest zone of the area is dominated by multi-use fields and an oval lawn; the initial plan included more features, such as a softball field, a bike path, a parking area, and a comfort station.
Birnbaum isn’t the only one whose suspicions were raised by the plan.
“Ovals are not actually that great for athletic fields,” Thomas Luebke, the secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts, said during the meeting. “I think it strikes everybody here that there’s something else going on.”
The proposed sculpture park was conceived by Trump and would see a wide-range of historical figures displayed alongside one another, including George Washington, Alex Trebek, the longtime host of TV game show Jeopardy!, and Harriet Tubman. Sculpted in traditional materials at larger than life size, these sculptures have been on his mind for six years, and he has publicly promised “a beautiful complex.”
Six preservationist organizations sued in June to stop the project, saying it could not proceed without congressional approval. In April, CNN had reported that not one sculpture would likely be standing by the targeted July 4, 2026, opening date, a projection ultimately proven true.