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Eisenhower Memorial Gets Go-Ahead07-16-15 | News

Eisenhower Memorial Gets Go-Ahead
Joint Venture of Architect Frank Gehry and AECOM

The Eisenhower Memorial plan, now a joint venture of architect Frank Gehry and AECOM, has been given final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission and all overseeing agencies. Rendering: eisenhowermemorial.gov

Designs for an Eisenhower Memorial have been ongoing for over 15 years. The project was granted preliminary approval last October.

On July 9, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) gave final approval to the Frank Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial. The commission noted the final memorial design satisfied the six design principles adopted by NCPC when it approved the site for the memorial. The commission says the design has been modified to respond to it concerns over pedestrian circulation, perimeter security, lighting and NCPC's desire to have the Maryland Avenue right-of-way/viewshed enhanced. NCPC says its role is now completed.

The memorial will be built on a four-acre site between the National Air & Space Museum and the U.S. Department of Education Building. It will contain limestone bas-relief blocks, a freestanding bronze sculpture and quotations from Eisenhower. A 447' long and approximately 80' high metal tapestry on the memorial's south side will depict landscape scenes of Abilene, Kansas where Ike grew up. A monumental colonnade will support the tapestry. Two additional freestanding columns will be on the memorial's north side. The entire site will be landscaped.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969), the 34th U.S. president (1953-1961), was a five-star general in the U.S. Army, and the supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during WWII. Ike planned and supervised the invasion of North Africa (1942–43), and the invasion of France and Germany on the Western Front (1944-45).

Ike also served in WWI. He requested duty in Europe, but commanded a tank crew stateside; the war ended before his tank corps could be deployed overseas.

After WWII, he was named supreme commander of NATO (1951), and served as President Truman's Army Chief of Staff (1945–1948). Leaving military matters behind in favor of academia, he presided as president of Columbia University (1948-1953). Eisenhower, a Republican, won the 1952 presidential election in a landslide, defeating Adlai Stevenson. He won a second term in 1956, again defeating Stevenson.

Ile and wife Mamie retired to a working farm in Pennsylvania, adjacent to the Gettysburg battlefield. In 1967, the Eisenhowers donated the farm to the National Park Service.