The Completion of Washington, D.C., project, The Proposed Civil War Memorial and New Stylobate of Washington Monument in Pyramid Lake, Washington, D.C., Perspective

Leon Krier

1985

An ink-on-paper perspective by Leon Krier that imagines relocating the Washington Monument onto a new stylobate and Civil War memorial set within a pyramidal lake, proposing a theatrical, classically ordered composition.

The drawing's meticulous parallel hatching radiates like a sunburst behind impossibly broad steps, framed by a pyramid at left, a brick-faced wall and classical temple at right, and tiny figures and a sailboat that make the scene feel monumentally staged and eerily serene.

Made amid debates over modernism and historicism, this proposal exemplifies Krier's New Classical critique—using hand-drawn perspective to revive axial monumentality, classical form, and human-scaled civic order as alternatives to late‑modern planning.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Architecture Drawing Ink Perspective Classicism Postmodernism

Exhibitions

Visionary Architecture

1960

Architecture in the New York Area

1952

Architecture in Government Housing

1936

Modern Architecture for the Modern School

1942