Jefferson's Pursuit of Cleanliness

18 months into renovation, a scaffolded Jefferson Memorial, commanding the preeminent position overlooking the tidal basin, remains under construction for a cleansing and roof restoration.  Expected to last 15 months when initiated, the monumental renovation is now expected to go through February of 2021.  A leaky and moldy roof lead to the decision by the National Park Service to hire Grunley Construction to replace two lower layers of the roof beneath the dome and clean the black biofilm (algae, fungi and bacteria) that has accumulated on the marble exterior.  The entirety of the monument's exterior will be cleaned by laser, a new waterproof subsurface will be installed, and the front portico entry will be lifted and have its waterproofing replaced as well, and missing coffers and beams in the portico will get replacements, and all stone surfaces will be re-grouted and cleaned, keeping Mr. Jefferson dry.

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As to the extended renovation time, a park service spokesman says "a variety" of factors contributed to the delay; "Covid didn't help."  The memorial is one of the most photographed places in Washington DC thanks to its epicentral position on the tidal basin surrounded the city's venerated cherry trees.  And while work on the monument may be nearing an end, a larger water problem looms: the land on which the Jefferson sits is sinking, and rising sea levels don't help.  But that is a more protracted problem, and the Trust for the National Mall is leading the charge to think through some solutions, though easy answers seem elusive.

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Eisenhower Memorial Ready, Waiting

Memorial Day would have been a fitting time for a dedication to one of the nation's great military and political leaders, but as with everything involving a public gathering, postponement was inevitable.  The grand opening ceremony for the decade-long project to commemorate Dwight D. Eisenhower in a 4-acre park in southwest DC, hoped for in early May, has been pushed back to September with the hope of a proper dedication.

The Frank Gehry-designed project has been years in the making, going back to the early part of the century.  The commission tasked with the design to commemorating the D-Day hero selected Gehry back in June of 2009, but the brutalist design was thought by many, including Eisenhower's family, to be overdone and out of sync with its surroundings, "not in harmony with the vision of the L'Enfant plan and the McMillan plan."  Organizers established an alternate design competition to "choose the design that best exemplifies the ideals of a meaningful, timeless memorial that is appropriate classical vision of Washington, D.C."  The controversy devolved into a series of setbacks, hearings and debates, before a revised completion date of Memorial Day, 2015 was put in place, and Gehry ultimately approved as the designer.

Five years after the intended opening, the monument is ready for the public, even if the public cannot reciprocate.  Clark Construction, which dominates federal construction projects in DC, began work on the project in November of 2017 and completed the project in March, in time for the planned opening.  The central feature is the 450-foot wide tapestry displaying scenes from "peacetime" Normandy with over 600 3' x 15', three dimensional panels woven by reams of stainless steel thread affixed to the soaring, stone-clad columns.  The memorial, intended to honor the U.S. President and five-star general, is the first presidential memorial to be built this century.

The memorial is haltingly large, with 80-foot high, 9 foot in diameter columns supporting the Normandy scene (Clark points out that columns on the Lincoln Memorial are 44' high and 7'5" in diameter, as a comparison). The engineering feat, not quite matching the Normandy landing but impressive still, involved Clark's Virtual Design group employing 3D models to install the minutely sensitive tapestry, and a slow curing of the concrete columns due to their thickness to avoid thermo-shock and cracking.

While the inner columns are hollow, the outer, tension-supporting anchor columns are solid concrete, and together the 8 columns are finished with 3800 pieces of Spanish limestone - mined and fabricated in Spain and (for stone that would be carved) shipped to Italy and finessed by Italian master stone carver Franco Cervietti.  The panels were created in Los Angeles through "electromagnetic welding."  On top of that, the 60 foot high screen "is essentially an enormous sail, absorbing a massive amount of wind loading," says Jared Oldroyd of Clark Construction, who oversaw the project and pointed out the need for innovation of newly designed systems to properly secure the site's main attraction.

If all that sounds like a run-of-the-mill home repair project, Clark points out the efforts of 53 subcontractors to support construction, and their own past experience including the National Museum of African American History, the International Spy Museum, renovations to the National Air and Space Museum, the Jefferson Memorial Seawall, the National Mall, and World War II Memorial (and others.  And of course bi-weekly coordination meetings focused solely on finalizing the tapestry connection details between the structural engineer, the architect, the client, the tapestry installer, and the tapestry designer.  That will soon be history too, and Eisenhower will at long last have an unmissable tribute just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. 

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Debate over Eisenhower Memorial Continues at House Hearing

There are few things on which proposed Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial stakeholders agree, but two clearly emerged Tuesday: They want to honor the distinguished president, and more time is needed to make it right for everyone.

The House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands was the latest forum for the ongoing controversy surrounding plans for an Eisenhower Memorial designed by well-known architect Frank Gehry whose portfolio includes designing the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Discussion boiled down to whether the current proposal can be altered to reach a compromise or whether it is necessary to go back to the drawing board altogether.

"Clearly we do not have consensus today," said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Carl Reddel, Executive Director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, when asked about his perceptions at the end of the Congressional hearing. He told the subcommittee that the commission believed it had consensus from its members, the Eisenhower family and the public until last July when conflicting views surfaced. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission worked with the U.S. General Services Administration to select a design through the GSA's Design Excellence Program and was reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). The selection immediately drew an alternative competition from arts groups opposed to the Gehry plan.

The proposed design includes reliefs of two famous images of Eisenhower in his roles as president and general, large steel "tapestries," a statue of Eisenhower, interactive educational technology, and column-like structures placed throughout the 4-acre park.
During the hearing, critics of the project voiced concerns about the size, materials and message included in the current plan. Susan Eisenhower said her grandfather would neither like nor understand the memorial intended to honor his life.

"He would have wanted something on a smaller scale, I believe," she said. "This is an enormous thing."

Supporters of the proposed design defended its merits, pointing out the range of elements representing Eisenhower's myriad accomplishments throughout his life. And they pointed to ways the Eisenhower Family's opinions and the public's concerns were considered. A letter submitted into the record seemed to indicate that Gehry was willing to work with the family to alleviate their concerns.

A final version of the design still must be approved by the NCPC before construction can begin. While originally scheduled for review by NCPC at its April 5 hearing, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission asked the National Park Service to remove it from the agenda.

The decision was announced in a March 14 press release without an explanation for the delay. It does, however, state that the additional time will allow the group "to inform and fully brief other interested parties - including other Members of Congress and the Eisenhower family about all aspects of the Commission's preferred design concept."

On February 29, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a letter to the NCPC asking that any decision to approval final plans for the monument be postponed at least 120 days to allow more time for understanding the complex issues surrounding the decision.

Another point of contention is the process used to select Gehry. Susan Eisenhower said the process was neither democratic nor transparent. The National Civic Art Society (NCAS), represented by chair emeritus and Director Howard Segermark, testified to the process that he said excluded new or unknown designers from applying because they were asked to submit a portfolio instead of a design proposal.

William Guerin, assistant commissioner for the office of construction programs in the public buildings service of the GSA, explained the program as a three-phase process that requires the evaluation of past work, a shortlist of proposals for interviews, and then the review of proposals for design. In this case, a review board considered the recommendations and selected Gehry for the project.

NCAS has been among those questioning the actions of the committee during that time frame, including the lack of meeting minutes. "I think the main thing we want to hammer out is what happened between July 2007 and March 2009," said Eric Wind, chairman emeritus and secretary of NCAS. "That's almost a two-year gap." And he said the minutes from the 2009 meeting reference votes and decisions from the missing time period.

Some of those questions might be answered in a House Oversight Committee review initiated by another Feb. 29 letter from Issa asking the Memorial Commission to submit copies of all designs submitted for the project and "a detailed description of the process leading to acceptance of the Frank Gehry submission, including a breakdown of any and all votes taken pertaining to any submission." Those documents now are under review by the committee.

The Memorial Commission did not return a call for comments about the Tuesday hearing.

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Two Competitions to Redesign Portions of the National Mall: One For Creativity's Sake, One for Keeps

Over 1,500 professional and aspiring architects and designers, from around the world, have submitted designs to the two ongoing competitions offering the artistically minded an opportunity to make a mark on the National Mall. One competition is officially connected to the National Park Service, and has just selected 15 professional design teams, after three days of consideration by an eight-person jury, to move on to Stage II of the National Mall Design Competition to redesign three areas of the Mall: Union Square at the foot of the Capitol, Constitution Gardens near the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater. For each of the three redesign areas, six design teams were selected, with a few teams selected as finalists in two areas: the Diller Scofidio Renfro & Hood Design team is a finalist for both Union Square and the Washington Monument Grounds portion; the Rogers Marvel Architects & Peter Walker and Partners team is a finalist for both Union Square and Constitution Gardens; and the OLIN & Weiss/Manfredi team is a finalist for both the Washington Monument Grounds portion and Constitution Gardens. Second stage designs are due December 1st, and those who will be moving on to the final round will be announced on December 15th. The design competition was officially launched in early September and brought in over 1,200 participants, said spokeswoman Lauren Condoluci. The Trust for the National Mall, with part of its purpose being to help realize the NPS Mall Plan through its "Campaign to Restore the National Mall," is responsible for the corporate-sponsored design competition, as The Trust is the "official non-profit partner of the National Park Service," created in November of 2007 by Chip Akridge, founder of the eponymous commercial real estate company Akridge. Meanwhile, another National Mall design competition was launched prior to the NPS competition, in the summer of 2010: the National Ideas Competition for the redesign of the Washington Monument Grounds, sponsored in part by George Washington University. Chair of the National Ideas Competition steering committee, James Clark, principal at MTFA Architecture, said that the winning participants will benefit from exposure, as they will have risen to the top of over 500 competition participants. "We realize none of the schemes will ever get built," said Clark. "But we hope they have an impact on the potential of the grounds." 

He also said that the competition's worth is in creative participation on a broad spectrum; participants ranged from individual designers and amateurs aged 12 and up, and professional design firms. The competition is now in its final phase: the solicitation of the public's vote to determine two winners from the six finalists, including firms from the Netherlands, South Korea, and D.C. local Hunt Laudi Studio. Julian Hunt, co-founder of husband-wife firm Hunt Laudi, said he entered a A Great Inclined Plane (shown at left) to "extend the mall and make it into a sort of viewing platform," inspired in part by the failure of the space to serve the Obama Inauguration crowd well. Hunt also felt the complexity of the design submission would be appreciated by a first-round jury that consisted of renowned, avant-garde architects. Winners of the National Ideas Competition will be presented to the public next spring. Likewise, the NPS' National Mall Design Competition will put on a public exhibition next April, and winners will be announced in early May. Unlike the creative visions produced through the National Ideas Competition, however, fundraising efforts for the NPS/The Trust for the National Mall undertaking will commence after the winners are announced. 

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Disabled Veterans Memorial's Struggle Near its End

A 2.4-acre site next to the U.S. Capitol, home of the future American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, is about to see extensive prep work in advance of what its backers hope is an imminent start of construction. Located across from the U.S. Botanical Garden at 2nd and C Streets, SW, the site was selected due to its prime location just off the Mall and within view of Congress, but it's caused some headaches.

Conceptualized in 1997, the Memorial's Foundation, a non-profit formalized in 1998, first set out to raise $85 million in private funds through its Capital Campaign. Thirteen years later, and with approximately $10 million coming from over a million disabled veterans through the Disabled American Veterans association, the Foundation is only $250K shy of its goal.

Congress approved the memorial in 2000, and Michael Vergason Landscape Architects' creation "Fire in the Grove" won the Foundation's design competition to solicit architects, in 2001; architects Michael Vergason and Doug Hays then set about to hone the design. After 9/11, however, the section of C Street running through the memorial's site was seen as a dangerous truck-bomb route to the Rayburn building, and the design was reconfigured accordingly, and first presented to the necessary commissions in 2006.

In 2009, the Commission of Fine Arts approved the design, followed by the National Capital Planning Commission in 2010, and construction documents were given the final stamp of approval these past few months. Earlier this year, in April, a general contractor, Tompkins Builders Inc. - who rebuilt the Reflecting Pool and built the WWII Memorial - was selected, followed by a May announcement that sculptor Larry Kirkland had been commissioned to create four bronze pieces.

The Foundation expected to move on construction this summer, but, as project executive Barry Owenby explained in early August, there was a delay in obtaining construction permits from the National Park Service due to continued site-specific difficulties: five utility companies have facilities on and/or through the site that would have to be relocated. Furthermore, the project required additional federal funds in order to manage the necessary street closures and infrastructure improvements that accompanied the utilities relocation.

Yet, finally, the Memorial Foundation reports that "significant offsite work" has begun, including the purchase and fabrication of materials for the Memorial, including fountain pumps and piping, stainless steel, metals, electrical equipment, and granite (a significant chunk of costs): Bethel White for the Wall of Gratitude, Virginia Mist for the plaza paving, and St. John’s Black for the fountain and reflecting pool.

Architect Hays explained that, while the original idea was to use marble, the NPS requested a more durable material be used, and granite was selected.

"It's a unique design," said Hays.
"Sometimes [a design] can become watered down [through the approval process], but that's not the case here. I think it's actually become better."

Three glass walls will be made of "48 laminated, 5-ply panels of Starphire glass, with inscriptions and images embedded in the interior panes." This is the same glass used in the Apache helicopter and B-2 bomber.

A flame will flicker in the center of a star-shaped fountain at the heart of Memorial, and a grove of trees will surround the site, which will also offer a parking lot for the disabled.

Hays, responsible for overseeing the ongoing process of design and document approvals over the past five years, added that, "The design is to say thank you [to disabled vets], to educate the general public, and to serve as a reminder to Congress what the cost of war is." He noted that, although Michael Vergason Landscape Architects is the firm responsible for the memorial's design, Shalom Baranes became the architect of record last year.

The first (fully funded) phase of construction will be the rerouting of communication lines to and from the Capitol, and the second phase will include the realignment of C Street and relocation of utilities, after which construction of the actual memorial can begin. Although Owenby said in August "we are doing everything possible to shorten the Memorial’s construction time," the VFW reported recently that completion is likely to be in November of 2013.

The Memorial Foundation's co-founder, Lois Pope, a philanthropist and former actress/singer on Broadway, was inspired to create a memorial for disabled veterans after singing for Vietnam War vets in the '60s. Actor Gary Sinise, notable for his role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, is the Memorial's official spokesman.

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Eisenhower Memorial Draws Flack, Competition

After a contentious burst of outrage over the release of designs for the future Eisenhower Memorial in Southwest DC, at least one arts organization has decided to support its own competition for design of the monument. The National Civic Art Society, a Washington DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting classical art and architecture, has publicly opposed the design and is seeking submissions for what it hopes will replace the current proposal solicited by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission and designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.

The NCAS intends to launch a publicity campaign this week to generate alternatives to the three, very publicly denigrated proposals now before The National Capital Planning Commission. Nearly unanimous public contempt of the proposals under consideration was apparent after DCMud and DCist reported on the plans under review, reports that generated overwhelmingly negative comments. "There are better options here for honoring President Eisenhower than big metal poles" said Eric Wind of NCAS, referring to the free-standing columns that will rise in the middle of the park as part of the Memorial. In sponsoring the competition, Wind says the ultimate design should reflect the subject of its tribute rather than salute the fame of its designer. "When you see the Lincoln [Memorial], 99% of the people don't think of the designer, its supposed to be a timeless monument. The emphasis is on the person honored." As for the architect, Wind says of Gehry "he has supporters and dectractors, but when it comes to this design I haven't seen anyone in favor. Some of [his designs] are better than others, but this is among his worst."

The NCAS competition was inspired in part by the design of the Alaskan state capitol building, which Wind says was the subject of a design competition that resulted in a "horrible" winner. In the aftermath of the competition and negative publicity it received, an architecture student "sat down in a few hours and designed something much better" that resulted in a rethinking of the project.

"In general this just does not match the aesthetics of Washington DC," said Wind, who wants to reach out to students and critics to come up with, well, anything better, though he has no illusions that forcing a do-over will be easy. "I think its safe to say we're an underdog." The Memorial was created by an act of Congress and has been approved by the Eisenhower Commission and The U.S. Commission on Fine Arts.

"If we can show the public what a truly classical, beautiful design looks like, we hope [the Commission] will reconsider, it will look much better than what Gehry has designed." The Eisenhower Commission selected architect Frank Gehry in early 2009 in a highly publicized national design competition. The deadline for submissions is April 15th, the contest is being cosponsored by the Institute for Classical Architecture Mid Atlantic Chapter. NCPC will review the Gehry designs today at its 12:30 meeting.

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Eisenhower Commanding the Mall

Three design alternatives for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial will be presented this Thursday at a public meeting before the The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). One of the three concepts selected by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission will be chosen for the 400 block of Independence Avenue, SW, in a plan that could get final review as early as this year.

The Eisenhower Commission selected architect Frank Gehry early last year to design the memorial, and several subsequent rounds of revisions have honed the site plan into three designs, one that creates a circular pattern of smooth, non-supporting and seemingly unfinished columns surrounding the park and tribute (top rendering), a second that follows the colonnade and deference to L'Enfant but allows Maryland Avenue vehicular traffic to continue through the site (middle rendering), and a third that leaves the original concept of a road closure and block-filling park intact, along with the original concept of a screen - "tapestries of woven stainless steel mesh supported on the colonnade of limestone" (bottom rendering).
The $90-120 million project (Washingtonspeak for $180m) mandated by Congress for the 34th President is behind schedule on its projected 2015 opening, but whenever it wraps up, it will provide "a cohesive and contemplative space for learning about President Eisenhower and his vast accomplishments." Each version will have a central tree grove strategically placed to frame local vistas, underneath which visitors relax, sit and learn amid a new orthogonal grid of urban canopy.

The Eisenhower Commission, a 12 member, bipartisan group that includes senators, representatives, former presidential appointees, and Ike's grandson, has expressed its preference for the Scheme 3 that eliminates Maryland Avenue and breaks up the L'Enfant plan, creating a more cohesive tribute to the General and President. "It would be extraordinary if we can build this memorial designed by the foremost architect in America in today" said Daniel Feil, Executive Architect for the Eisenhower Commission. "This will be the 7th monument for a President [in DC] and the first in a century."

The presentation by NCPC is the first of three phases before the Commission, in this case to render design guidance on each of the three plans. The second of three required NCPC hearings will review the ultimate plan once it is selected, with a third hearing for final plan review; NCPC reviewed and approved site selection in 2006, and Gehry made an informational presentation before NCPC a year ago. NCPC Public Affairs Director Lisa McSpadden notes that the Commission "did give very specific design principals" to the National Park Service, incorporating 7 guidelines such as maintaining views of U.S. Capitol. The U.S. Commission on Fine Arts CFA reviewed and approved it on January 20th, the next step will entail a public review and comment period. Gehry and his team will be on hand at Thursday's meeting to hear out the Commission's presentation.

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What Makes a Monument?

Last night several artists participated in a Smithsonian-sponsored presentation and round-table discussion concerning the problematics of modern day "Approaches to Public Art, Placemaking, and National Commemoration." Their essential message was: monuments, as they're traditionally conceived and built, are boring, and they quickly fade from the foreground of our memory and conscious, eventually losing their meaning all together. "Monuments are doomed to be invisible" one artist explained. It seemed a spot-on idea for the dead history capital of the world.

Each artist offered distinct but congruent solutions to the problem of dead war-figure monuments. Krzysztof Wodiczko, Harvard professor and artist in temporary and interactive light installations, expressed his wish for existing monuments to be "reactualized," reconnected to modern life through new artistic undertakings (multimedia, performance art, etc). "There are so many historic buildings and monuments," he explained, "for which the contradictions between the ideals for which they were built and the actuality of the way life really is happening in front of them, is left unexplored." Sounds a bit heady for a stodgy old Washington, D.C. But its a profound thought, that calls for further contemplation.

Julian LaVerdiere, artist and designer of the World Trade Center Tribute in Light, expressed his wish to see monuments not become celebrated for a singular statue or brick, but derive meaning through their ability to offer a "transformative experience" to the visitor. He cited a potato famine memorial in New York City at which the artist had simply picked up an acre of a fallow Irish farm and plopped it in the middle of a city square. Both LaVerdiere and Justine Simons, Director London's Cultural Agenda and Programming for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, voiced their support of temporary public art instillation as a substitute for monuments. Wodiczko said, "I don't mind permanent monuments, as long as they change," eliciting a large laugh from the audience.

Host and moderator Thomas Luebke, Secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Art, said what everyone was thinking, or at least what I was thinking, when he observed, "Too oten memorials in D.C. just feel like real estate development." But how does a city with so many watch-dog groups, and so many politicians waiting to get involved, attempt to "wake up the landscape," as Simons suggested? She attributed much of her success in staging the temporary memorials of Trafalgar Square's 4th Plinth to her ability to "rid the process of all politicians and politics." The temporary nature of the projects "rid the process of some of the anxiety," she explained, "and allowed us to experiment and test the boundaries."

At the end of the presentations and subsequent discussion, the audience wasn't exactly left with a solution, but that's never how these kinds of things work. Instead, listeners were left with several provocative ideas to contemplate. How do we wake up the landscape with interactive, meaningful public art and memorials? How do we keep monuments alive? What is the future of place making in a fractious culture, and a divisive climate? And how do we sneak some interesting public art past the NCPC, ANC's, District Council, and the Committee of 100?