Eisenhower memorial design moves forward
The Eisenhower Memorial Commission, under fire from lawmakers and critics over a controversial design to honor president and Kansan Dwight D. Eisenhower, has decided to proceed with a revised design by famed architect Frank Gehry.
The commission, dogged by disputes over the design and funding for the last several years, will return to the National Capital Planning Commission with the revised design Oct. 2. Earlier this year, the commission, one of the memorial’s approving bodies, rejected the original Gehry plan.
The Eisenhower memorial, first approved by Congress in 1999, has barely moved off center since Gehry’s design was unveiled in 2010. Critics blasted it. The late president’s grandson, historian David Eisenhower, resigned from the commission, though he had been supportive of Gehry’s design.
The family, however, was split. David Eisenhower’s sisters, Susan and Anne Eisenhower, emerged as vocal opponents of the original design. They now speak for the family and in a Sept. 15 letter said it would not support the revised Gehry design, either.
Meantime, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran has resigned from the commission. He preferred the original design and that more of Kansas be reflected in the work.
Congress has cut back on the memorial’s funding because of the ongoing controversy.
Nonetheless, the commission’s vote Wednesday may well give momentum to the world-renowned architect’s revised vision and jumpstart the process after critics had been arguing for a complete overhaul. Gehry’s willingness to compromise with opponents has won over some of the stiffest opposition.
The modified design removes two of the metal tapestries that have been the center of controversy, leaving one large tapestry along the length of the memorial space and two bas-relief sculptures in the middle.
Gehry eliminated the two tapestries, which the planning commission said diminished the sight lines to the U.S. Capitol, and left two 80-foot columns to frame the four-acre rectangular space. The memorial is to be built on a tract on the National Mall across from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and in front of the Department of Education Building.
Planning commission members were generally favorable to the revised design when they first saw it at a meeting earlier this month.
Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican on the planning commission, wanted the remaining tapestry removed. That would leave only the so-called core of the memorial — a bas-relief of Eisenhower as supreme allied commander on D-Day, another of him as president, and a sculpture of him in the middle as a young cadet at the U.S. Military Academy.
However, the commission rejected that option Wednesday, and it separately rejected an option to delay a decision until November, also by a vote of 8-2.
Drama over the memorial continued Wednesday, the day of the vote, when it was disclosed that Kansas Moran, an original commission member who had served since 2001, had resigned on Sept. 17, the day of the Eisenhower commission’s annual meeting.
Moran was a supporter of Gehry’s original design, which relied heavily on Eisenhower’s boyhood connection to Kansas. Eisenhower was born in Texas but moved to Kansas when he was very young.
“Sen. Moran feels strongly about getting a memorial built for President Eisenhower and has been a staunch advocate for the state of Kansas to have a presence within the memorial design,” Moran’s communications director, Garrette Silverman, said in an email.
She said that Moran’s “ongoing support for the inclusion of Kansas has led him to conclude that this stance is blocking a memorial to President Eisenhower from completion. He hopes an Eisenhower Memorial is completed soon.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Eisenhower memorial design moves forward."