Burt L. Fenner

In common with hundreds of other men of professional or artistic capacity, the qualities of Burt Leslie Fenner, his individual judgment, self-sacrifice and untiring energy, came strongly into public view when we entered the war in 1917. With a group of similarly devoted architects and builders, he attacked the seemingly hopeless problem of the quick and immediate housing, in overcrowded Washington, of the score of new “war bureaus” and their staffs of thousands. Like the training camps and the war munition plants, the new buildings had to be completed instantly; the need was critical; a day’s unnecessary delay might jeopardize everything. Under such circumstances, Fenner and his associates accomplished the impossible. This achievement in the field of purely utilitarian and emergency construction only emphasized the artistic skill and genius which Fenner contributed to the Municipal Building, the Pennsylvania Station and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1927 Century Association Yearbook