plans to have four approved buildings (Internal Revenue, Justice, Labor, and Ayres' Commerce structure) completed by 1932. By October 1928, the Board of Architectural Consultants had agreed with prior decisions that no office building should be constructed on the National Mall, and that this space should be reserved for museums. Ayres' design faced one final hurdle in the fall of 1929. Although the Board unveiled its proposed design for the project in April 1929, the design still lacked a unifying architectural look. Subsequently, John Russell Pope was asked in September 1929 to bring a more uniform style to the buildings. Nonetheless, within this more uniform approach, a variety of styles could be used, and were: Italian Renaissance for the Department of Commerce building, Corinthian for the National Archives building, and Ionic for the Post Office Department. Meanwhile, Ayres and the Board of Architectural Consultants worked with sculptors, painters, and others to design more than 100 statues, fountains, bronze doors, murals, plaques, and panels (both interior and exterior) throughout the complex. Ayres was involved in approving two major changes to Federal Triangle in early 1930. The Board and other planning groups had long agreed to site the Justice Department building on the block bounded by 7th, 9th, and B Streets NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But this plan changed in March 1930. Architect John Russell Pope made a proposal to have the Justice and Archives buildings switch sites so that the Justice building would have more space. Although the change would entail major design alterations in both buildings, Secretary Mellon favored the idea. The Commission on Fine Arts approved the plan, and Mellon met with the Board of Architectural Consultants in late March 1930 to discuss the idea. Although this initial meeting left the issue unresolved, Ayres and the Board later agreed to Mellon's wishes in April and the two buildings switched plots. President (and former Commerce Secretary) Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Commerce building on June 10, 1929, using the same trowel President George Washington had used to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. The contract for its limestone facade—according to at least one newspaper account, the largest stone contract in world history—was awarded in April. The cost of the building had risen to $17.5 million. Ayres' Department of Commerce building opened on January 4, 1932. Ayres continued his work on the Board of Architectural Consultants into