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Washington Metropolitan Area Transit - METRO

The Washington, D.C., Metro rail transit system was selected for the 2014 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. Designed by Harry Weese, FAIA with the matching ideals of “Great Society” liberalism and Mid-Century Modernism, the Washington Metro gives monumental civic space to the humble task of public transit, gravitas fit for the nation’s capital.

Recognizing architectural design of enduring significance, the Twenty-five Year Award is conferred on a building project that has stood the test of time by embodying architectural excellence for 25 to 35 years. Projects must demonstrate excellence in function, in the distinguished execution of its original program, and in the creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards. The award will be presented this June at the AIA National Convention in Chicago, the home of Metro’s architect, Harry Weese, who died in 1998.

"All the money there is"

Throughout the long, arduous process of federal approvals, perhaps the most auspicious event in Metro’s development was when Weese was called before a government review board and harangued for not spending enough money.

That board, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, advised the president and Congress on matters of design and aesthetics in the national capital. Securing its approval was key to pushing Metro ahead. Previously a bastion of conservative Beaux-Arts partisans, the commission had by the mid-‘60s received an infusion of new blood amenable to Modernism, including critic and author Aline Saarinen, wife of Eero, and Pritzker Prize laureate Gordon Bunshaft of SOM. Bunshaft was concerned that Weese was bowing to cost and value engineering pressure from engineers and his clients, stripping away the dignity and prestige required for a state-of-the-art mass transit system in the most powerful city in the world. “Are you happy, or are you doing the best you can?” Bunshaft asked, according to Zachary Schrag’s The Great Society Subway. “I could spend all the money there is,” Weese shot back. “Well, then why the hell don’t you try?” Bunshaft said.

Such an exchange is nearly unthinkable in today’s political and economic climate. And in the end, “all the money” wasn’t necessary: $10 billion would do. But these lofty standards and confidence in the ability of government to meet them speak to the power of “Great Society” liberalism and the belief that investment in infrastructure is what makes nations great and serves its people best.

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