Abstract:
Apolitical contradictions in the United States have largely been reduced to policy issues in the
last century. A shift in partisanship has seemed unlikely with each new administration. As a
result, crises have compounded social, racial, and economic classes, forcing them to conduct
insurgencies against the establishment. These insurgencies frequently take place in historically
significant spaces, after which become post-conflict landscapes. These landscapes are
representative of a larger social disorder glossed over by nostalgia in an American memory.
The National Mall is a post-conflict landscape troubled by its perception as a hallowed ground of
nonpartisan sociopolitical relationships. A controversial history infuses the dialogue surrounding
national park design, monumentality, and urban conflict. The Expansion Plan functions like
previous, historic master plans providing a remedial framework for the next century of design.
Monumentality now reckons with uncomfortable topics and celebrates forgotten figures. The
Mall becomes a democratic and educational space informed by historiography, analysis of
existing conditions, and responses to post-politicization. It looks beyond partisanship and
nostalgia to envision a retrospective space accepting of the nation’s past and its people.
