the mid-1930s. From 1931 to 1936, the Board struggled to accommodate the need for automobile parking at the complex while also making Federal Triangle pedestrian-friendly. The Board began studying traffic issues in late 1927. A major study of parking needs and solutions was conducted in 1931, and traffic and parking patterns assessed again after the Department of Commerce building opened in early 1932. To achieve some of the traffic and parking goals, Ayres and the Board voted to eliminate the east-west streets and diagonal avenues, leaving only the north-south streets through the area, and 12th and 9th Streets NW were submerged in tunnels beneath the National Mall. In the first major change to the Board's "final" plan of 1929, a proposed "Grand Plaza" between the Commerce and Post Office buildings was abandoned in favor of a parking lot. The Board considered a number of other solutions to the need to accommodate the more than 7,500 cars expected to arrive every day (including an underground bus terminal and underground parking garage under the Grand Plaza), but in the end only approved a small number of underground parking spaces beneath the Apex Building. The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded him its Medal of Honor in 1933. In 1936, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. He wed Mrs. Edith Twining (née Donald, widow of Major Kinsley Twining) On November 28, 1928. He became stepfather to Twining's son and daughter, and his stepson Kinsley Twining became American vice-consul in Singapore. Notable buildings and memorials Among Ayres' more recognized and important buildings are: Bowery Savings Bank, 110 East 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues across from Grand Central Terminal Brick Presbyterian Church Broadway Savings Bank Guaranty Trust Company building Herbert C. Hoover United States Department of Commerce building New York Academy of Medicine building Rockefeller Hospital United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial His Bowery Savings Bank building is particularly notable. The structure has "one of the great interior spaces of New York", according to one architectural guide. Ayres' was not only a noted architect in his own right, but he helped lead many successful design teams as well. His teams won for York & Sawyer commissions for the Federal Building in Honolulu, Hawaii, (since replaced by the Prince Kuhio Federal Building) and 33 Liberty Street, Manhattan, New York City (the Federal