Martin Luther King Memorial Taking Shape

Its not easy building a monument on the National Mall. And yet despite the intentionally time-consuming, necessarily frictional process, construction of a 4-acre monument to Martin Luther King Jr. is now, finally underway on the Mall's Tidal Basin.

After decades of preparation, and a groundbreaking back in 2006, the achievement may seem at once inevitable (3 ex-Presidents have lent their support, and corporate sponsors read like a Forbes 500 list), yet so long in conception that DC residents could be forgiven for having not noticed. Hidden from Independence Avenue by a nondescript beige wall, what began 3 or 4 decades ago, depending on who you ask, is at last technically under construction, as contractors begin to place 300 concrete pilings - Venice style - into the silty marsh of the Mall. The pilings will ready the site - a river, after all, until the late 19th century - to accept what will effectively be a large landscape project supporting oblong granite memorials to the civil rights leader.

Once completed - possibly by next summer - the park-like memorial will wrap around the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin, opposite and viewable from the Jefferson Memorial.

Visitors will enter from the northwest edge, near Independence Avenue, by way of a new walkway past the World War I Memorial to better connect the King Memorial to the Mall - a necessity for an area that serves as DC's main attractant but fails to provide for those who show up by car. No designated parking will be added.

Visually, visitors will be greeted by one of the monument's principal symbols - the "mountains of despair," a literal embodiment to a reference in King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The twin granite slabs will frame the entry, two 30-foot sentinels 12 feet apart, appearing to have been sliced and parted, bearing inscriptions from the 1963 speech with themes of justice and hope. Again emulating the civil rights struggle, despair will lead to a path beyond, and having passed through it emerges the view of a single stone, the "stone of hope," appearing as if cleaved from - but beyond - the struggle. Harry Johnson, President and CEO of the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation, takes up the vision of the entrance: "It will look like a mountain that's been split in two. Outside is rough, simulating the roughness of the civil rights movement. You still have not seen Dr. King until you get closer to the Jefferson. It will appear as though the stone of hope will have been cut from the mountain of despair. [King] will be carved on that stone." In fact the granite, quarried in China, is too big to ship in tact, and will be cut into sections and reassembled on site. Lei Yixin, a Chinese sculptor, designed the statue.

Having crossed the memorial to the 28-foot sculpture of King carved into the granite, who stares back at the entrance, arms folded, the visitor will be surrounded by 700 feet of arcing inscription wall that peaks at the entrance at 12 feet in height, decrescendoing down to two feet at the ends, which bow toward the Tidal Basin. Selected quotes will be etched into the surface, which in its first design was intended to flow with water during the summer months, a feature removed when the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) determined it would interfere with visitors' ability to read the quotes.

Set just behind the arcing wall are 24 large, raised semicircular niches, each designed to "commemorate the contribution of the many individuals that gave their lives in different ways to the civil rights movement." Each will allow a private, reflective space dedicated to individuals that died in the civil rights struggle; some will be left blank "in deference to the unfinished nature of the movement."

Hundreds of trees will be "randomly massed" throughout the exhibit, with evergreen Magnolias along the perimeter, Oaks tracing the arc of the stone exhibit, and Cherry trees weaving into the Cherries that now dominate the circumference of the basin. According to Johnson, the Foundation, which has been responsible for the design and construction of the memorial, will add another 200 cherry trees along the tidal basin. Despite the addition to the canopy Johnson says it "will be very visible from the Jefferson Memorial, you will be able to see Dr. King and the memorial." None of the current Cherries will be removed.

The project to build the memorial has been a separate struggle worthy of its own narrative. The official website dates its inception at 1984 (Wikipedia brings it back to 1968), when Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity to which King belonged, first proposed a memorial on the National Mall. After much lobbying and rallying, President Clinton signed legislation authorizing the memorial in 1996. The Foundation was formally organized in 1998, and fundraising began in earnest. Unprecedented corporate support (General Motors eventually gave $10m, Tommy Hilfiger gave $5m, and thousands of other corporations have made contributions), gave the tribute momentum, and the development process its acme. In 1998 the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) approved a site at Constitution Gardens.

But in 1999, the CFA, which has authority to approve every element of any memorial, voted against the eastern end of Constitution Gardens as a site, contradicting NCPC's approval, and later that year the two commissions approved the Foundation's request to move the site to the Tidal Basin. In 2000, the Foundation reviewed more than 900 submissions for the design of the memorial, and later that year selected ROMA, a San Francisco-based design firm for its concept of the memorial park. In 2004, Devrouax and Purnell, a DC-based architecture firm, was picked to carry out the task. Devrouax had worked for the city on almost every high-visibility project - projects like Nationals Stadium, Ronald Reagan Airport, the new Convention Center, and the African American Civil War Memorial. According to Marshall Purnell, a principal at Devrouax, he suggested that his firm and ROMA for a joint venture to keep ROMA actively in the process of implementing its design.

While work got underway, the relationship between the Foundation and the Devrouax did not survive the project . "We continued to submit designs, but at some point we fell out of favor with the Foundation" said Purnell. "We were pretty deep into the process by that point, about 65-70% finished with the construction designs and documents." No one involved wants to discuss why the Foundation chose to remove them, and Purnell will not cast aspersions, saying only that "it got sort of ugly. The contract was terminated."

Up until that point the memorial's construction seemed imminent. Congress had just donated $10,000,000 in matching funds, and a groundbreaking had been scheduled for 2006, but other problems beset the project. Fundraising efforts were complicated by King's family, which demanded royalties from money raised using King's name and image in marketing for the memorial. Some supporters protested that a black sculptor had not been chosen, and others decried the choice of Chinese granite, noting that the use of Chinese workers, who are poorly paid and treated, was not respectful of their own civil rights struggle.

With funding lagging, a new design team did not begin until the summer of 2007, when the Foundation selected McKissack and McKissack, Turner Construction, Beltsville-based Gilford Corporation, and Tompkins Builders (now owned by Turner). According to Lisa Anders, Senior Project Manager at McKissack, the engineering firm was chosen because they have "done work on the Mall, and worked on Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, and we are a minority CM and architecture group, so we bring that to the project."

In 2008 the Commission of Fine Arts asked for a reduction in the size of King's statue and the stone of hope, stating that "the statue design is difficult to evaluate because such colossal human sculptures are rarely created in modern times...the recent imagery of such sculptures includes television broadcasts of these statues being pulled down in other countries, a comparison that would be harmful to the success of this memorial." Commissioners commented that only statues meant to be viewed from a distance were now built so big (both Lincoln and Jefferson nearby likenesses are smaller), and created the suggestion "of a colossal statue rather than a depiction of an actual man." The Commission also disagreed with the heavy use of bollards, and the resulting shift in perimeter security to a more natural barrier slowed the project by up to a year.

Despite the complications, work now appears to be in its last phase. With $107m of the projected $120m project already raised, the National Park Service issued construction permits last October, and on December 28th of 2009 initial site prep began on the site, which should wrap up in a little more than a year. Says Purnell of the original design-build team "I would just like to see the Memorial built." It now seems certain he will get his wish.

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Reflecting Change on the Mall

On Thursday, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved changes to the reflecting pool area of the National Mall. Modifications to the celebrated vista will include a fresh source of water, revitalized pedestrian walkways and, of course, increased security measures, though NCPC officials assure us the new security features will visually improve the site.

In what NCPC staff report called "a comprehensive rehabilitation," the Commission voted to approve the National Park Service (NPS) plan to upgrade the Elm Walks by repaving the walkway and adding better lighting and seating. On the immediate north and south of the reflecting pool NPS will add pavers to replace the dirt paths. A less obvious upgrade will be the water source that fills the reflecting pool, which will switch from potable (treated) drinking water to tapping the Tidal Basin. In the works is a plan to dig a trench and lay a plumbing system that will pump water from the Tidal Basin directly into the reflecting pool.

According to David Levy, Director of Urban Design and Plan Review at NCPC, this feature and the repair of leaks in the pool will result in a cleaner, "more sustainable" and less wasteful water supply. Levy says the same changes will eventually be applied to Constitution Gardens to the immediate north.

This being DC, enhanced security is also on order. But in a welcome change, NPS will use natural boundaries as entry barriers to the Lincoln Memorial, lowering the floor of the reflecting pool to create a natural barrier for crazies driving land vehicles approaching from the east. "The most brilliant part of the whole design, is that they will use the edge of the reflecting pool as part of the barrier...This is the kind of innovate security that NCPC encourages, you get increased security without impacting public space," says Levy. Unless of course a terrorist manages to obtain a DC Ducks vehicle, but odds of that are pretty low. Once the changes are in place, NPS will remove some of the protective bollards and all of the temporary planters now on the site for an overall aesthetic improvement.

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Have a Say in the Future of the Mall

On February 18th, the National Park Service (NPS) will hold a public meeting to present (in brief) the various alternatives for revamping the National Mall. The NPS released a 600-page draft plan in December with a public comment period that lasts through March 18th. The goal is to create a comprehensive plan for the upkeep and improvement of the National Mall, including the various monuments and parkland within.

The plan has five options: a do-nothing option, a preferred alternative and three other options focusing on either historic landscape and education (signs and trees), a national civic space (think Forrest Gump) or urban recreation and ecology (baseball fields). According to the NPS website, the Agency Preferred Alternative is a combination of the three action alternatives.

See for yourself next week from 5 to 7 PM at the Old Post Office building near Federal Triangle Metro.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture Design Process Crawling Along

The design for the future National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall checked off its first of a series of reviews today, when the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) heard a presentation from the Smithsonian Institution and their chosen architect, Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, about the plans for the building. Though commissioners praised the quality of the design, many expressed "serious concerns" about the current design's size and massing in relation to the Mall and the Washington Monument. The design process is scheduled to last approximately 3 years, with construction beginning in 2012. The 5 acres of land near the Washington Monument have been the subject of vociferous debate first with the National Park Service opposing its use for anything but the grassy space that exists today, then with 22 designs competing for the site and now with sundry federal and local agencies reviewing the merits of the design that won out over five other semi-finalists this past April. Bounded by Constitution Avenue, Madison Drive, 14th and 15th Streets NW, the site would be the terminus of the Smithsonian museums on the Constitution side of the mall, leading up to the Washington Monument. The current design is what the architect described as a pavilion, its base embracing the mound-like structure at the base of the neighboring "temple" buildings, which include the Museum of Natural History and the American History Museum. The building then opens inwards like a "front porch" to reflect a structure common in both traditional West African and southern African American cultures, according to the architect. The mass of the building is aligned with the Museum of Natural History and it is no higher than the American History Museum. NCPC commissioners generally commented favorably on the concept, especially praising the interior design of the building. However, one after another, members expressed concern that the building would diminish the impressiveness of the Washington Monument because, as one commissioner put it, the design "failed" to maintain "the integrity of the mall." Other commissioners mentioned that part of the design process involved the architects providing three alternative design concepts, a process which would "improve the final project." With the design far from finished, NCPC will hear from the team again in the spring of 2010.

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House Passes Bill for Another Museum

Finding itself surrounded by an insufficient number of museums, the House of Representatives this month passed H.R. 1700 to add another museum along the National Mall. "The National Women's History Museum Act of 2009," co-sponsored by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and 50 other Members, directs the General Services Administration (GSA) to sell property for the construction of a National Women's History Museum to research collect, and "showcase the contributions of women in professional fields," and "honor women's roles in nurturing their families and communities."

The agreement gives the museum administrator and federal government 6 months to work out a fair value for the land and sign a purchase agreement; the GSA has estimated the value of land at $60m. Though the site, bounded by 12^th Street, SW, Independence Avenue, and C Street, is currently used only as a parking lot, the GSA has not declared the property "surplus," complicating the legislative process. Norton took the bill to full committee mark-up after defending against a last-minute "scoring rule" raised by the Congressional Budget Office, though the bill would maintain budget neutrality. The bill now heads for the Senate for approval.

"Women have waited too long for their own museum in the nation's capital," Norton said, adding that the Museum "has significant potential to bring new visitors to the District, and to encourage others to stay longer." Let the CBO try and score that.

WWI Memorial Refurbishment Approved

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) met Thursday to review several project that fall under its purview, ultimately "commenting favorably" on all. One of the bigger items on the agenda was improvements to the District's World War I Memorial on the National Mall. The National Park Service (NPS) plans to restore the District of Columbia World War I Memorial, located on the Mall just above Independence Avenue, SW. It is the only District monument on the National Mall and honors residents of the District who fought in the war. Originally dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on November 11, 1931, the 47-foot tall memorial was used as a band stand, able to hold an 80-person band with space enough on the surrounding lawn to seat 300 people. It's last recorded use for public music was in 1960, since that time, the memorial has fallen victim to wear, tear, and obscurity. The NPS will clean and repair the memorial by adding bluestone and Elm trees, replacing non-historic paving with granite, and removing "non-historic trees." When completed, the memorial could once again be used as a bandstand. Restoration is expected to be complete by September 2012 and will cost an estimated $5.2 million, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But that won't remedy the security fences and lack of parking that make visiting the memorial difficult, and comparatively rare.

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Lincoln Memorial Improvements Get Favorable Review

Much-needed changes are coming soon to the section of the National Mall surrounding the Lincoln Memorial, courtesy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Improvements will include sidewalks along the reflecting pool, new benches and ADA access but, alas, no changes to the reflecting pool itself.

On Thursday, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) commented favorably on National Park Service (NPS) plans to rehabilitate the grounds on the east side of the Lincoln Memorial and adjacent areas in West Potomac Park, including the Reflecting Pool and Elm Walks. The latter, which extend past the World War II Memorial to 17th Street, will be refurbished with new lighting, benches, and trash receptacles.

Additionally the plan includes ADA accessible curved paths to connect Lincoln Memorial Circle with the Reflecting Pool. Other changes include a security-barrier, with NCPC recommending shorter walls than the 36-inch walls NPS had planned, to provide integrated seating without detracting from historic structures.

"They are pulling back the concrete and steel barriers and opening the vista, said NCPC Chairman John V. Cogbill, III. "The changes will allow for an unobstructed view between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument."

The project will also eventually address the source and quality of the stagnated water in the reflecting pool, but that portion will be submitted to NCPC at a later date.

"America's Front Yard" Gets Stimulated

While the Associated Press reports that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar directed $55.8 million in federal stimulus money to restoration of the National Mall this past Earth Day, plans for making over America's designated spot for both protest and play have been brewing for quite a some time. The National Parks Service (NPS) - the government agency tasked with overseeing all things Mall-related - recently released the details of their Preliminary Preferred Plan for the 309 acre site and it envisions a few nip-tucks that (gasp) may actually require some demolition.

On that note, NPS calling is calling for both the National Sylvan Theater and Capitol Reflecting Pool (not, as they are quick to point out, the iconic Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool) to be razed. While the latter would simply be replaced by another “water feature,” the Sylvan Theater – which hosts annual Military Band Summer Concert Series and the occasional fair-weather rally - would make way for a “multipurpose entertainment facility,” full details of which have yet to be disclosed. Union Square at the Mall's eastern end would also undergo a redesign, while the deteriorating District of Columbia War and Ulysses S. Grant Memorials would get the old toothbrush and brass polish treatment. Reps for the Department of the Interior also repeatedly emphasized the need to for restoration of the Jefferson Memorial’s sea wall, which spokesman Hugh Vickery described as “crumbling” against an ever encroaching Tidal Basin.

Not to be outdone by Salazar’s show of Earth Day bravado, the National Capital Planning Commission’s (NCPC) “Blue Ribbon Panel” of landscape architects has also released its critique of NPS’ plan for the Mall. While praising the restoration maneuvers as a “heroic effort,” they repeatedly refer to the site as both “America’s Front Yard” and an “international embarrassment.” Informed by the latter, they support “a standing ban on any new memorials or museums not already in planning stages (read: the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Eisenhower Memorial) and call for the relocation of tourist services off-site – citing the long-vacant Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building as prime contender.

To carry out these long-term goals of both the federal government and the NCPC, NPS has enlisted the aid of architects Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC and landscape architects DHM Design Corporation to outline their proposed modifications. With each contributor bringing their own roll of red tape to the table, could this be a case of too many cooks in the kitchen? There’s no telling at this point, but the renovation procedures could begin as early as this coming August.

Correction: The "Blue Ribbon Panel" mentioned above as extension of NCPC is, in fact, an "independent initiative" of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Says Stephen Staudigl, NCPC Public Affairs Specialist:

ASLA took the lead to establish the Blue Ribbon Panel that included members from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association...NCPC supports some of the ASLA panel’s key findings, such as the National Park Service’s “heroic” effort to improve the National Mall based on the public’s call for improved conditions and better services.

Freelon to Design African American History Museum

The Smithsonian Institute announced today (via their insanely popular Smithsonian Channel Blog) that the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond in association with SmithGroup have been selected to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture. To be constructed at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, the 350,000 square foot museum will stand on the very last vacant parcel of the National Mall.

Since the prospective designs went public last month, the winning team has gone on to beat out a formidable list of competitors that included Diller Scofidio and Renfro and KlingStubbins;" Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners; Moshe Safdie and Associates and Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates), Foster and Partners and URS and Moody Nolan Inc. and Antoine Predock Architect.

“[We] set up a poll on the Smithsonian Channel Blog asking readers who they think should win and although the Moody Nolan was the clear favorite, another design took home the win,” said Filippa Fenton of Smithsonian Networks. So much for democracy.

According to the Smithsonian, the selected “bronze-tiered design” (aka “the corona”) represents a “melding of cultural symbols, traditions and movements” from “the working landscapes of the American south to the crowns of Nigerian Yoruba artifacts.”

Construction of the $500 million complex is currently scheduled to begin in 2012. For a detailed look at Washington’s soon-to-be newest museum, check out the swanky virtual tour of the design, courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Mr. Eisenhower, Mr. Gehry Go to Washington

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission has announced that they have selected architect Frank Gehry to design the forthcoming Eisenhower Memorial in downtown Washington. Situated on a four-acre Independence Avenue parcel and straddled by the likes of the National Air and Space Museum and Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education Building, the prominent location will now host Gehry's first ever project within the District.

After tossing his name into the ring late last year, Gehry's as-of-yet undisclosed design has beaten a slew of potential candidates - including principals from Perkins and Will, Krueck and Sexton, Rogers Marvel Architects, Moshe Safdie and Associates, Natoma Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture – for the chance to lay out what the Commission is calling “a unique and engaging landscaped plaza type memorial, with an integral sheltering element to welcome visitors throughout the year and interpretive elements to bring the Eisenhower legacy to life.”

District residents, however, can look forward to more of DC’s famed downtown road closures once work starts. In keeping with the plans to make the Memorial “a unified, defined square,” the stretch of Maryland Avenue, SW currently bisecting the site will be scrapped in lieu of the congressionally mandated and approved Memorial.

The design phase for $90-120 million project is expected to last until 2013, with construction planned to begin shortly thereafter.

Designs Unveiled for New Smithsonian Museum

The Smithsonian has revealed (via WashingtonPost.com) the first prospective designs for the Mall’s next museum: the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. And from the looks of things, it’s going to be the grandest one yet; proposals for the 350,000 square foot museum within earshot of the Washington Monument range from glass-encased and “table-shaped” to almost pre-historic with natural materials “rising as of out of bedrock and muck.”

Last week’s presentations at the Smithsonian included new renderings and scale models by the development teams previously identified by DCmud: Diller Scofidio and Renfro (now teamed with KlingStubbins); Devrouax and Purnell Architects/Pei Cobb Freed and Partners; Moshe Safdie and Associates (now teamed with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates), The Freelon Group (now teamed with Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond), Foster and Partners (now teamed with URS) and Moody Nolan Inc (now teamed with Antoine Predock Architect).

Among the new revelations unveiled along with the designs were that the project’s budget, formerly reported at $300 million, which has now almost doubled to $500 million – half of which will be funded through a Congressional appropriation. The Smithsonian is also now projecting a 2015 opening for the museum, following the previously projected 2012 construction start date.

Once completed, the Museum will stand on a five-acre parcel at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW – one of the very last prime plots abutting the National Mall. A final selection on the Smithsonian’s choice of architect will be announced by a Smithsonian-chosen 11-member panel next month, to be seconded (or not) by a final approval by the Smithsonian Board of Regents. The final design will then enter into lengthy submission processes with both the Commission on Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Both interior and exterior renderings of the proposed designs are available here.

Designing the Mall's Next Museum

DCmud has obtained a list of architects now vying to design the newest addition to the Mall, and to the Smithsonian's downtown repertoire - the National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC), a 350,000 square foot edifice slated for construction at 15^th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW. According to Museum Director Lonnie Bunch, Washington DC's newest museum will "help all Americans see just how central African American history is for all of us."

At present, there is no shortage of architects willing to take a shot at designing for what is, essentially, one the last "vacant" parcels abutting the National Mall - and also one of the closest to the Washington Monument. Current bidders on the $300 million project include Diller Scofidio and Renfro, Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Moshe Safdie and Associates, The Freelon Group, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, Foster and Partners and Moody Nolan Inc. There is no word on when a final selection will be made, but construction is currently slated to begin in February (which also happens to be Black History Month) 2012.

Those interested in scoping out the NMAAHC’s exhibits in 2009, however, will have to hit the road; the museum’s inaugural exhibition, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits, will travel the country until work on its permanent exhibition space is complete. The collection is currently on display in Detroit, with future bookings planned for San Francisco, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago and Cincinnati all the way through 2011.

The museum was made possible by legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2003. The same act charted the museum under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution, and it was that body’s Board of Regents that selected the 5-acre site bounded by Constitution Avenue, Madison Drive and 14^th and 15^th Streets, NW to be home of the first national museum “devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life.” Having already completed a preliminary Environmental Impact analysis, the Smithsonian is currently undertaking what it labels as the “architectural programming phase” of development, during which the space and system requirements integral to a fully functioning public institution, such as the NMAAHC, will be established, and then relayed to the prospective architects for inclusion in their designs.

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Building Peace on the National Mall

Construction of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), is well under way at Constitution Avenue and 23^rd Street, NW – the so-called "war and peace corner" of the National Mall. Once a simply a surface parking lot for the neighboring Naval Potomac Annex, the site is due to be reborn as $185 million, LEED- certified testament to the United States' "commitment to building peace around the world."

The new 5-story white glass edifice will serve as the new headquarters for the USIP – a congressionally funded think tank dedicated to resolving international conflicts and increasing “peacebuilding capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide” – in addition to serving a bevy educational purposes for the public at the large. The latter will be served by a 20,000 square foot Public Education Center for visitors that will count a “Peace Lab” and theatre sponsored by the Chevron Corporation among its publicly accessible features. These will be joined by a conference center that is planned to include a 230 seat auditorium, a 45 seat amphitheater and 8 meeting rooms, as well as a public plaza and garden in the Institute’s inner courtyard. The USIP’s three uppermost floors will house office space for the Institute’s 200 or so employees and rotating roster of visiting researchers.

Moshe Safdie and Associates was selected as architects, following a nationwide design competition. Composed of “three distinct sections linked together by atriums covered by large-span undulating roofs,” the new USIP will be clearly visible from the nearby Lincoln Memorial, as well the adjacent Korean War and Vietnam Veterans Memorials (the latter of which has too been singled out by Congress for a significant expansion).

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the new facility took place this past June, with both then President George W. Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in attendance. The project boasted bipartisan support in Congress as well - the body that allowed now disgraced former Alaska Senator and then-Senate Appropriations Chairman, Ted Stevens, to allot $100 million in funds for the development. USIP is currently in the midst of seeking approximately $6 million more in private donations – a quarter of which was met in September by the BP America Foundation.

USIP has been represented throughout the development process by local developer John Stranix, who is also currently spearheading efforts to redevelop the District’s Parkside Additions public housing project. Clark Construction is serving as general contractor on the project (a webcam of their progress at the site is available here). The project is expected to open in the fall of 2010.

New Museum Adds to Vietnam Veterans Memorial

After more than five years of planning, plans for the proposed Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center have finally begun to surface. The project won't begin construction until 2010, but the US Congress, National Parks Service and a host of other government authorities have already shored up their plans to build the new underground museum next to Washington's famed Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall near 23rd Street.


Following a rigorous nationwide design contest held in 2004, the honor of designing a complement to one of Washington’s most visited and emotionally powerful tributes went to the Polshek Partnership Architects and Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Polshek will contribute the exterior designs, while Ralph Appelbaum has been charged with designing the interior exhibits. The Center will be the third collaboration between the two firms, as they previously worked together in a similar capacity on the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Newseum in Washington. The Memorial Wall's original designer, Maya Lin, has lent her approval to their designs.

Once completed, the Center will measure in at roughly 25,000 square feet and be dug into an elevated area next to the Memorial. As visitors approach the site of the east, the Center’s entrance will be masked by a “gentle recess that leads to a graceful below-grade courtyard.” The decision to build underground was made so as not to affect the resonance of the neighboring Memorial, while “protecting the elegance and beauty of our beloved National Mall.” Hargreaves Associates will serve as landscape architects on the project.

The emotional impact of the neighboring complex, however, will be felt throughout the museum, as one of the planned exhibits will serve as a showcase for the nearly 100,000 objects, remembrances and tributes left at the Memorial since its completion in 1982. Other displays included in the exhibition space will include a Wall of Faces - photographs of veterans who fell in the war - and another entitled the Legacy of Service that will highlight the contributions of servicemen and women to advance our democracy from the Revolutionary War to the present conflict in Iraq.

“[That’s] the exhibit I find most riveting,” wrote Senator Chuck Hagel in American Legion op-ed last month. “It will indelibly link those who served in the Vietnam War with their comrades-in-arms of other eras and wars through core values of duty, honor and country.” In addition to being a Vietnam veteran, Hagel is also a co-chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Corporate Council.

The legislation authorizing the project prohibits use of federal funds in the planning, design and construction of the Center. The non-profit fund is currently projecting a $75-100 million budget for the project - only $18 million of which has already been accrued through donations. Time Warner has lent a generous $10 million to the project, while Boeing went public with a $1 million donation last July. A non-profit group serving families impacted by the war, Sons and Daughters In Touch, is also currently fundraising by collecting $1 for each of the 58,256 names on the Wall.

The impetus for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center came in 2003 when the law calling for the creation of Washington’s Vietnam Memorial complex was amended by President Bush. It had taken a bipartisan group of Vietnam veterans serving in the 108th Congress - including Hagel, John Kerry, John McCain, and Tom Daschle – three years to get the bill authorized.

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Navy Makes Way for Peace on the Mall

A new building with a lighted, wing-like roof will soon loom over the Capital Mall near the Lincoln Memorial, if recently submitted designs are approved. The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) received preliminary approval by the National Capital Planning Commission last week for plans to build its headquarters at 23rd and Constitution Avenue, NW, conditioned on the building's aesthetic deferral to the Lincoln Memorial one block to the south. Designed by Moshe Safdie of Massachusetts, the Institute would stand 118 feet at its highest point - about 10 stories - though grading around the site will diminish the scale of the project, with a precast concrete skin and capped by a series of "undulating spherical and toroidal segments" made of white translucent glass that will be lighted after dark. The Federal Government has appropriated $99.2m for development on the southern corner of the Naval Potomac Annex, which currently uses the space for parking, in exchange USIP will provide 140 garage parking spaces to the Navy. The Commission on Fine Arts has already approved the concept, but several commissioners voiced strong concern about the lighting overshadowing the monuments or overwhelming the Mall.