Forget the East Wing. The Real Demolition Has Only Just Begun.

Mr. Goldberger is a former architecture critic for The Times and The New Yorker and the author of “Why Architecture Matters.”

The proposed “Arc de Trump” in Washington is less a monument than a gaudy construction the height of a skyscraper — a travesty that, if built, would dramatically change the landscape of the nation’s capital. This is probably why President Trump is so eager to get it made as fast as he can. It would be an unavoidable monument to a presidency and a man whom many Americans would rather not honor so conspicuously, if at all. He understands that once it is there, it will be hard to for anyone to make it go away.

Change is supposed to happen slowly and carefully in Washington, and there are systems in place to make that so. When the National Park Service said last week that........

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