Louis Ayres
[1] From 1921 to 1925, he served on the prestigious U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the federal advisory panel which had statutory approval over all major building projects in Washington, D.C.[6][7] His four-year term expired in 1925, and he did not seek reappointment.
[8] The same year, he was one of the three judges on a panel which awarded the commission for the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, to Harold Van Buren Magonigle.
Congress created the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) in 1923 in part to consolidate the United States Department of War's divisions for military cemeteries and for stone and bronze battlefield map memorials, and in part to build, operate, and maintain American military cemeteries overseas.
[10] The ABMC was deeply influenced by Charles Moore, the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts and whose agency had final approval over the design of the cemeteries and memorials.
He was one of three judges on a panel which in 1925 awarded the design for the proposed Theodore Roosevelt memorial to be built in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C.[15][16] In 1926, Rutgers University presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
[26] The Board of Architectural Consultants first met on May 23, 1927, at which time it considered a plan to create a single building ringing Federal Triangle rather than six to eight individual structures.
[27] In June 1927, Ayres and the other consultants approved construction of the Department of Commerce and Internal Revenue Service structures as stand-alone buildings on the previously proposed sites.
[28] A month later, Ayres and the other Board members proposed constructing eight buildings, connected by plazas, semi-circular colonnades, and other architectural and landscaping elements.
[30] Rather than a mass of tall, imposing buildings, two unifying open spaces (intended for ceremonial use, and under discussion by the Board at least by March 1928) would be utilized.
[31] The first would be a Circular Plaza (inspired by the Place Vendôme)[32] bisected by 12th Street NW, and which would require the demolition of the Old Post Office Pavilion.
A new headquarters for the Department of Commerce had been proposed in 1912 and a contract for the design work awarded to the architectural firm of York and Sawyer.
In September 1927, the Commission of Fine Arts met to discuss proposed plans for both the Commerce and Internal Revenue buildings.
He and the other Board members reviewed all designs for the Federal Triangle project in the fall of 1927,[39] and demolition work began on the Commerce site in September 1927.
[35] Ayres designed four massive pediments for the building, which Fraser filled with sculptures with the themes "Aviation," "Mining," "Fisheries," and "Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
Due to the formerly marshy condition of the soil and the existence of several submerged streams nearby, Ayres designed a structure that would stand on more than 18,000 pilings.
[46] Ayres and his team devised a plan whereby a deep-sea diver descended into the underground Tiber Creek and drilled a hole 20 feet (6.1 m) deep into the earth.
[46] The building's foundation was more than three feet thick in places in order to withstand the hydraulic pressure put on it by the submerged Tiber Creek.
[48] Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon imposed a requirement in December 1927 that all the buildings be built in the Neoclassical architectural style.
Although the size of the Commerce building had stabilized by March 1928,[31][32][51] some Board members still suggested that both 15th and 14th Streets NW be submerged in tunnels beneath the structure.
[53] By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums.
[56] Meanwhile, Ayres and the Board of Architectural Consultants worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex.
The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan,[55] and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea.
[57] Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved,[58] Ayres and the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots.
[63][65] In the first major change to the Board's "final" plan of 1929, a proposed "Grand Plaza" between the Commerce and Post Office buildings was abandoned in favor of a parking lot.
[3] Just before his death, Louis Ayres was commissioned to lead a team which would draft a master plan for the expansion of Rutgers University.
