Old Post Office Pavilion
| Old Post Office Pavilion | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| Historic District Contributing Property | |||
| National Historic Site | |||
 Old Post Office and Clock Tower, Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC |
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| location | Washington, DC | ||
| Coordinates | 38 ° 53 '39 " N , 77 ° 1' 39" W | ||
| Built | 1892-99 | ||
| architect | Willoughby J. Edbrooke | ||
| Architectural style | Neo-Romanesque | ||
| NRHP number | 73002105 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | April 11, 1973 | ||
| Declared as CP | September 30, 1965 | ||
| Declared as NHS | September 30, 1965 | ||
The Old Post Office Pavilion , also known as the Old Post Office and Clock Tower and renamed Nancy Hanks Center in 1983 , is a historic building complex on Pennsylvania Avenue in the American capital Washington, DC Since 1965, the building has been part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site . It was used as a public office building until 2014. After a two-year renovation, it opened as a luxury hotel in September 2016.
history
In 1880 the United States Congress approved the construction of a new post office building. It was built from granite, steel, and iron to plans by architect Willoughby J. Edbrooke between 1892 and 1899, and when completed was the tallest building in Washington, DC.Today, it is the third tallest building in the District of after the Washington Monument and the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Columbia (after the administration introduced height restrictions on buildings there in 1910). The massive building in neo-Romanesque style is characterized by a five-story atrium in addition to the 270-foot high clock tower. It was renamed Nancy Hanks Center in 1983 in honor of Nancy Hanks (1927-1983, first female chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts ) and is part of the Federal Triangle .
On September 30, 1965, the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site was created, which also includes the Old Post Office Pavilion . On October 15, 1966, the National Historic Site and the Old Post Office Pavilion were listed as Contributing Property in the National Register of Historic Places . The plans that became known in 1970 to demolish the building, which looks like a foreign body on the side of the neoclassical surrounding government buildings from the 1930s, were abandoned after citizen protests. The protests resulted in the establishment of the DC Preservation League, which is dedicated to monument protection . On April 11, 1973, the Old Post Office and Clock Tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a separate architectural monument.
After years of unsuccessful attempts to convert the building for public administration, the operator General Services Administration invited private investors in 2011 to submit concepts for a different use. From originally 80 interested parties and ten applicants, a consortium, led by the investment company "DJT Holdings LLC" under the control of Donald Trump, acquired the right of use from the US government in 2013 in a 60-year lease for (inflation-dependent) three million US dollars each Year.
The building was most recently the seat of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Endowment for the Arts . Ten bells have been hanging in the clock tower since 1983, donated to the United States in 1976 by the British Ditchley Foundation and which continue to ring on special occasions. In June 2015, after Trump's controversial, perceived racist remarks about Hispanics at the beginning of his candidacy for the Republican Primary, protesters demanded that Trump terminate his contract or at least prohibit self-promotion on the building envelope. It said Coming 2016 TRUMP in large white letters .
The building was to be converted into a luxury hotel with 217 rooms, a “ Presidential Suite ” and an even larger “Trump Townhouse” by 2017 . In fact, the soft opening of the Trump International Hotel Washington, DC began in September 2016 and was staged by Trump in the media for his election campaign. He claimed that thanks to his daughter Ivanka the $ 212 million project was completed “on time and at a lower price”, and for months at his campaign events he asked the rhetorical question: “When was the last time the government got something on time and under budget made? "
In June 2017, two US attorneys general ( Maryland and Washington DC) filed a lawsuit against Trump in federal court in Maryland. They accuse him of violating a number of anti-corruption laws in the US Constitution . The government of Saudi Arabia, with which Trump has had very friendly ties since taking office, had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars there. Trump did not maintain the strict separation between public office and private business interests. A judge rejected the appeal of the Ministry of Justice in March 2018.
Web links
- Old Post Office at the US General Services Administration
- nytimes.com: Trump Hotel at Night: Lobbyists, Cabinet Members, $ 60 Steaks
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Old Post Office on the US General Services Administration website .
- ^ National Park Service : The National Parks: Index 2009–2011 . United States Department of the Interior, ISBN 978-0-912627-81-6 , p. 36.
- ^ Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 4, 2017.
- ^ A b Eugene L. Meyer: A Trump Makeover for Washington's Old Post Office. In: The New York Times. May 27, 2014, accessed February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ Old Post Office and Clock Tower in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 4, 2017.
- ↑ Susanne Craig, Eric Lipton: Trust Records Show Trump Is Still Closely Tied To His Empire. In: The New York Times. February 3, 2017, accessed February 22, 2017 .
- ↑ Perry Stein, Jonathan O'Connell: Protesters Want Trump's Name Removed from DC Building. In: The Washington Post . July 9, 2015.
- ↑ buzzfeed.com April 28, 2016: Donald Trump Is Going Postal
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de September 13, 2016: Trump's new hotel promises super luxury for the super rich.
- ↑ full text
- ↑ zeit.de June 12, 2017: US attorneys general sue Donald Trump
- ↑ zeit.de March 29, 2018: Lawsuit against Donald Trump remains