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\n\tOn Monday, before the eyes of Washington, D.C., water once again filled the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.<\/p>\n
\n\tA sign, posted by National Park Service on the premises, reads: \u201cThe Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is being refilled as the National Park Service and contractors put the final touches on a historic effort to clean, repair, and beautify this iconic national landmark. As part of the normal refilling process, the water may temporarily appear cloudy before clearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEarlier this year, after a restoration that involved painting the bottom of the reflecting pool\u2014a color described by President Donald Trump as \u201cAmerican Flag Blue\u201d\u2014the new coating began to peel, prompting a second round of repairs even as Trump declared the work \u201ctotally complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAtlantic Industrial Coatings, which was awarded a no-bid contract to renovate the pool, announced on its website that warranty repairs had been completed on October 2, adding, \u201cIt has been an honor to serve our great nation!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe fenced-off, slate-blue basin had sat exposed through the summer, a stark reminder of the project\u2019s other protracted troubles: a major algae bloom, controversial contract awards, and most recently, flaking paint. The Trump administration initially attributed the pool\u2019s peeling coating to vandalism, leading to criminal charges against several people, including former Olympic canoeist David Hearn. The Justice Department dropped the case against Hearn in July, after a determination that the coating\u2019s installation was \u201cbotched.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite evidence contradicting the vandalism claims and a ruling barring Hearn from being prosecuted again, President Donald Trump reiterated at a Tuesday press conference that vandals had cut pieces out of the basin.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe had vandalism there, and we have it about as vandal-proof as you can get,\u201d he said. \u201cBut only sick people do that, and we have their pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe project has also faced a legal challenge. In May, the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a nonprofit education and advocacy organization, sued the NPS; its acting director, Jessica Bowron; the Department of the Interior; and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, alleging that they bypassed required historic-preservation review in pursuit of a poorly planned renovation.<\/p>\n
\n\tOf the basin\u2019s new color, \u201cAmerican Flag Blue,\u201d the suit noted that the pool\u2019s original gray coloring helped preserve the visual cohesion between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park,\u201d Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF\u2019s president and chief executive, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2274481573.jpg?w=1024″] On Monday, before the eyes of Washington, D.C., water once again filled the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. A sign, posted by National Park Service on the premises, reads: \u201cThe Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is being refilled as the National Park Service and contractors put the final touches on a historic effort to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2199946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2199946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2199946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2199946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}