242 architects to the nation
established by the Capitol and the group of early buildings on the
one hand, and the development of the Mall to create a setting for
the Lincoln Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial itself, and the
Arlington Bridge, on the other.11
In an article intended for the aia readership, Louis A. Simon pre-
sented a different view of how the Supervising Architect s Office ini-
tially approached its task. The highest ranking architect in the Office,
Simon represented the agency on major design matters, such as the
Federal Triangle project. He recalled:
When the space-needs of the Federal Government had reached
such proportions that the Congress was moved to authorize some
relief from the growing congestion, the first intention was to con-
struct a few Federal buildings, regarded at that time as unrelated.
For that purpose there were to be utilized several sites then owned
or to be acquired for the location of buildings to furnish a given
number of square feet of floor area for offices, etc.
According to Simon, this original condition changed radically by the
act of Congress on 13 January 1928, which authorized the Secretary
of the Treasury to acquire all of the remaining land in the Triangle
area. Given this new situation,  the aims now expressed point to the
creation of an impressive, monumental group of buildings that will
take its place in the larger possibilities which the opportunity pro-
vides. 12
The protests from the aia had their desired effect. The plans of the
Supervising Architect s Office were scrapped and steps were taken to
turn over the Triangle project to private architects. While the Office
hung onto the design responsibility for the Internal Revenue Service
building, Peaslee thought that the building when completed was not
up to the standards of the other Triangle buildings.13
The first step in the direction of what the aia envisioned for the
Triangle area had already taken place. In October 1926, at the urging
of Charles S. Dewey, his assistant secretary, Treasury Secretary
Andrew W. Mellon hired Edward H. Bennett as  Consulting Special-
ist (Architectural) to  act in an advisory capacity in matters affecting
the location of Public Buildings and related matters bearing on the
Public Building Program of the District of Columbia. 14 As an em-
ployee of Daniel Burnham in the early part of the twentieth century,
Bennett had worked on the 1905 plan for San Francisco and the 1908