"President Donald Trump’s order to apply a blue-tinted surface to the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool needed federal review, a D.C.-area foundation says."
"A Washington-area nonprofit Monday asked a federal court to halt President Donald Trump’s efforts to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying that the president failed to undergo required federal reviews before applying a blue color to the basin.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization, filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The group is seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to stop the Interior Department’s work, citing a provision of the National Historic Preservation Act that mandates reviews when changing historic properties.
The foundation also wrote that the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that advises on design projects related to the nation’s capital, has been involved with past changes to the pool but did not review Trump’s new project.
Charles A. Birnbaum, who heads the Cultural Landscape Foundation, noted that the neutral colors originally used for the pool’s basin were intended to convey greater depth and reflection, which is now threatened by the president’s changes. He called the blue tint “more appropriate to a resort or theme park” and in an interview said his organization’s lawsuit was propelled by deeper questions about aesthetics, federal law and the intent of Washington’s memorials."
