Winning design is announced for National World War I Memorial in D.C.

The United States’ national memorial to the First World War sits in Kansas City atop the hill facing Union Station.

But there will be a second national World War I memorial in Washington, D.C., and officials on Tuesday announced the winner of a design competition for it.

The selected design, called “The Weight of Sacrifice,” will be a largely natural green space with walls sculpted with images of the war.

The site is in existing Pershing Park, named for Gen. John J. Pershing, a Missourian and commander of the American Expeditionary Force during the war. The park is one block from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

One might think that one National World War I Memorial is enough. The fact that there are two is the result of a political compromise that ended a dispute that had percolated for years. Advocates of a national memorial in the nation’s capital had blocked efforts to designate the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City the official national memorial to World War I.

The acclaimed exhibits in Kansas City had already been designated by Congress as the national museum of that war.

The primary local advocate was U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. The compromise was attached to a must-pass defense budget bill in December 2014.

A spokesman for the Liberty Memorial said officials in Kansas City view the establishment of a second national memorial positively.

“Once it comes to fruition (funding still needs to be secured), it will shine a spotlight on the legacy and impact of World War I, which will serve to educate the public on how the war still affects us to this day,” said spokesman Mike Vietti.

The centennial commission sought designs that could be built for $20 million to $25 million.

Matt Naylor, president and CEO of the museum at Liberty Memorial, serves on the commission and was in Washington for Tuesday’s announcement.

There is also a memorial on the National Mall in Washington to the 26,000 residents of the District of Columbia who served overseas in World War I. The new memorial will be broader in scope.

A commission established by Congress to coordinate the centennial observation of the Great War opened the design competition last May. It received more than 350 submissions from around the world. A panel of design professionals and historians pared them down to five finalists last August.

The winning concept was by Joseph Weishaar of Chicago and Sabin Howard of New York.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation on Tuesday denounced the plan, which it said would destroy an existing park that is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Winning design is announced for National World War I Memorial in D.C.."