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The Architecture of Security
In Nation's Capital, Finding a Balance Between Beauty and Safety
 Listen to NPR's Alex Van Oss' report.
 View a photo gallery of Washington, D.C. security measures.
Jan. 26, 2002 -- Since Sept. 11, architects nationwide have been rethinking how to protect buildings from terrorist attack, but still keep them attractive and accessible. In Washington, D.C. -- full of buildings that are prime targets for a terrorist's wrath -- planners are thinking of new security measures that might also help preserve the city's photogenic beauty.
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts Secretary Charles Atherton told NPR's Alex Van Oss that city officials are thinking of reviving a security measure from centuries past -- a kind of hidden moat, once used to control animals, with the unlikely name "Ha-Ha."
"(It) was a landscape feature in great English estates that didn't want their views interrupted with walls," Atherton said. A Ha-Ha is simply a ditch that gradually slopes up to ground level on the pasture side, and a severe slope on the estate side, so the cows couldn't come up on the lawn.
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"If you build a big concrete wall, it obviously will stop a bomb blast. But if you make your lobbies just a collection of heavy concrete walls with little concrete doors -- it's not exactly the welcoming image that our government needs and wants."
Architect Carol Ross Barney
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A modern version of the Ha-Ha has been endorsed to protect the Washington Monument, which currently is protected by a ring of so-called Jersey barriers. The barriers are low, moveable concrete walls most often seen on highways to protect work sites from traffic rushing by.
Richard Friedman has been working with the National Capitol Planning Commission, says it will take careful planning to make Washington, D.C. safe and people-friendly at the same time.
"Washington was not planned with security as a major part of the urban planning," Friedman told Van Oss, "and so I think there's this large vacuum we're trying to deal with."
Jersey barriers, concrete cylinders filled with sand and metal or concrete sidewalk barriers called bollards are the usual methods to secure buildings, on the theory that attackers will most likely be driving truck bombs.
But Friedman says that security doesn't necessarily mean more concrete and steel. "Frankly, a sidewalk cafe is a form of security," he says. "People being on the streets are a form of security -- a tree could be a form of security.
"A robustly designed and properly parked bench can be as effective -- can be in fact more effective than a Jersey barrier," Friedman says.
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Metal bollards being installed near the Executive Office Building have deep, reinforced foundations.
Photo: David Banks, NPR
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No security measure is perfect. The park bench that can stop a car may be too high for comfortable sitting. And the building that's absolutely, 100-percent jet plane-proof would not have much room for humans inside.
Architects like Carol Ross Barney have been approaching the security issue from all angles, and are trying to find a balance of form and function. "If you build a big concrete wall, it obviously will stop a bomb blast. But if you make your lobbies just a collection of heavy concrete walls with little concrete doors -- it's not exactly the welcoming image that our government needs and wants."
Washington, D.C. has often been called the "City of Trees," but it's also a city of bollards. There are thousands of them now, like rows of teeth, along with other barriers in front of federal buildings. Some architects are proposing replacing most of the bollards with traditional gates, fountains -- and even more trees.
"Trees are just magnificent things. Big buses can't even begin to knock down a mature elm or a mature oak," says architect James McCrery.
But trees take time to plant and grow. But it takes no time at all to close off a street -- and that's what's happened in front of the White House and key buildings on Capitol Hill.
And while tourists come to admire and look at the stately building of the nation's capital, some of those buildings are looking right back.
"One of our favorite lamp posts in town is right in front of the Supreme Court Building," McCrery told Van Oss. "And all of the other streetlamps, as they march down First Street, have two big glass globes and a light bulb. And this one -- inside the globe -- it's a camera."
"It's not Big Brother -- it's government withdrawing itself while still performing its necessary duties," he says.
In Depth
Browse more NPR coverage on Washington's anti-terrorism efforts.
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