Preservationists are asking a federal judge to immediately halt President Donald Trump’s ongoing project to resurface the reflecting pool on the National Mall.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in federal district court in Washington, a nonprofit group contends that the National Park Service violated the National Historic Preservation Act by beginning to repaint the bottom surface of the landmark in a bright blue color.
“The vivid blue coating will fundamentally alter the visual and experiential character of the pool and the broader Lincoln Memorial Grounds landscape,” the complaint from the Cultural Landscape Foundation and its president, Charles Birnbaum, alleges. “The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year.”
Trump has repeatedly touted the project as a money saver and ridiculed President Joe Biden’s administration for overseeing a renovation of the pool that Trump contends left it unattractive and in disrepair. Last week, he took his motorcade through the drained pool to survey the work and stopped to praise the team applying the blue coating.
Trump said the gray color was “never good” and described the new color as “American flag blue.”
However, the new suit describes the precious, darker color as an intentional part of the contemplative mindset the pool was intended to cultivate.
“The dark grey, achromatic basin was not incidental to the design. It was the design,” the suit says, pointing to a 1999 Park Service report that said “the dark color of the tile created the illusion of greater depth and a more profound reflection.”
Along with the suit, the foundation and Birnbaum filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to pause the resurfacing project while the litigation continues.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
In a statement, a Park Service spokesperson did not directly address the suit but defended the project.
“The choice of American Flag Blue will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument,” the statement said. “The Department is proud of the work being carried out by our Park Service to ensure this magical spot can be enjoyed for not only our 250th, but for many generations to come.”
A White House spokesperson referred comment to the Park Service. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.
Birnbaum, a former Park Service landscape architect, claims to have suffered an“aesthetic injury” — similar to claims Trump has ridiculed in connection with litigation over his attempt to build a new ballroom on the site formerly occupied by the White House’s East Wing.
“Mr. Birnbaum’s aesthetic enjoyment of the Reflecting Pool—as a historic designed landscape whose character he has documented, championed, and personally appreciated over many years—is being concretely harmed by Defendants’ ongoing alteration of its character-defining features,” the complaint says. “He will continue to suffer this aesthetic injury unless and until the historic character of the pool is restored.”
The suit says the Park Service appears to have invoked a “streamlined” process created in 2008 for preservation, maintenance and repair of historic properties to permit the resurfacing without the consultation required by law for more significant renovations. But it notes that the 2008 agreement mentioned “repainting in the same color as existing, or in similar colors or historic colors” as the sort of work permitted under the streamlined provisions.
