A different kind of cover-up in nation's capital

WASHINGTON -- In a city well-known for cover-ups, this story is different.

This is the story of a "keep it covered up."

Keep it covered is what Chad Allen wants to do with the Washington Monument, the 555-foot marble-and-granite obelisk that rises from the National Mall in honor of the nation's first president.

The monument has been sheathed in scaffolding since December as part of a $9.6 million restoration project. Designed by internationally renowned architect Michael Graves, the scaffolding was intended to be practical and attractive, but temporary.

That last part is key. The scaffolding is scheduled to be dismantled and removed when the restoration is completed next summer.

But Allen, managing editor of an online travel service, likes Graves' work. He likes the scaffolding better than the monument itself. And in what can only be a called an example of someone tilting at obelisks, Allen thinks it should become permanent.

"It's a more modern look," said Allen, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich., who has lived in Washington for almost a year. "There are times when it makes sense to update our symbols, to make a gesture that we're moving forward."

For Allen that time has arrived. To promote his admittedly quixotic cause, Allen is using that most modern of weapons, the Internet. He has created a website -- keepitcovered.org -- where he urges potential signers of an "e-petition" to "join the cover-up."

Among Allen's top 10 reasons to keep the scaffolding in place is that "the covered monument is an apt metaphor for the need for greater discretion in personal conduct among politicians."

But Allen, holder of a master's degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University, is more concerned about aesthetics than politics. In his view the scaffolding simply makes the 111-year-old monument a more interesting piece of architecture.

"It just looks better, especially at night with the lights," he said. "I guess I just don't have this overwhelming nostalgia for a big piece of stone."

The problem for Allen is that many people do. Washington is a city that takes its monuments seriously. Suggestions to fiddle with them do not go over well.

"It's not something we endorse," said Jen Larson, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service Foundation, the nonprofit organization spearheading the restoration fund-raising drive. "The scaffolding is going to come down."

And that is exactly what Graves intended. Tom Rowe, an architect with Graves' Princeton, N.J., firm, said the scaffolding was not designed to be permanent.

"It's very flattering on the one hand," Rowe said. "On the other, what we designed technically can't last."

Now at work designing a $70 million addition to the Detroit Institute of Arts, Graves designed the scaffolding to mimic the grid pattern of the monument's mortar joints. Transparent netting attached to the scaffolding allows visitors to watch work crews scaling the monument's facade: inspecting, cleaning and repairing the giant stone blocks.

At night the scaffolding-enveloped monument evokes images of the Eiffel Tower, the 984-foot wrought-iron icon of Paris that surpassed the Washington Monument as the world's tallest structure in 1889.

Normally illuminated by a battery of floodlights shining up from its base, the Washington Monument now is illuminated by 500 light fixtures attached to the scaffolding.

The image, Allen is convinced, is worth preserving. And he said he's not alone.

"Just picking up the vibe from the street, I sense that other people think it looks better too," he said.

A handful of supporters have signed his petition, but Allen admits that the battle to preserve the scaffolding might require a general of Washington's skills.

"I see it as a grass-roots thing," he said. "It's just a matter of building momentum."

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