Please forgive the cross-posts, but this design question concerning the
Washington Mall may be of interest.
Mary Krugman
Historic Preservation Consultant
Montclair, NJ
_________________________________
Subj: URGENT PLEA FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINY--WWII Memorial
Date: 5/17/99 1:23:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: [log in to unmask] (Judy Scott Feldman)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (CONSORTIUM OF ART AND ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS)
To all CAAH members concerned about the place of art and architecture on
the National Mall:
Attached below is a letter I am submitting today to the Washington Post
about the latest design for the National World War II Memorial on the
National Mall. Votes will be taken this Thursday, May 20, and on
Thursday, June 3, which will determine the future of the public and open
walks between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
The press gave extensive publicity in 1997 to the initial outcry against
locating the Memorial in the middle of the Mall (led by Senator Robert
Kerrey of Nebraska), and the original gigantic design was rejected. When
the new design was submitted last June, however, little public notice was
made. Yet, the new design, though lower and more modest, was even more
objectionable on the grounds
that it BLOCKS the middle of the Mall entirely between the flanking rows of
trees.
Now the latest design is up for approval and no publicity has been given
PRIOR TO the public hearings and vote. My letter is a call for public
scrutiny. In coming years as the Mall is torn up and replaced with the
"open room" which sinks and shrinks the Rainbow Pool, marks the "sacred
precinct" with a sarcophagus, and puts a roadblock in the middle of the
Mall's spaces and vistas,
we will have to ask what role we historians, teachers, and defenders of the
power of art and architecture played.
The new design was submitted only on May 3 and is available through the
offices of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning
Commission in Washington.
The site and design are still very much of concern to many--see the New
York Times, April 4, 1999, James S. Russell's article, "Art and Politics
Vie In a Battle to Honor A Monumental War."
Please direct your comments, or better, try to attend the meetings on May
20 and June 3.
Please forward this message to anyone you feel should know.
At the National Capital Planning Commission, contact Mr. Harvey Gantt,
Chairman,
National Capital Planning Commission, 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 301,
Washington, DC 20576. The Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts is the
Honorable J. Carter Brown, The Commission of Fine Arts, The Building
Museum, Suite 312, 441 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. Members of
both commissions are appointed and represented interests of the city of
Washington, Executive Branch, Congress, Department of the Interior, and
regional interests.
Judy Scott Feldman
Assistant Professor, Art and Architectural History
Washington Semester Program
American University, Washington, D.C.
Home phone 301-340-3938
May 16, 1999
To the Editor:
Soon the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning
Commission will decide the future of the National Mall when they consider
the latest design for the National World War II Memorial. At issue is
more than just the design of the Memorial itself; because of its site, the
Memorial would alter forever the character of the Mall.
People are probably unaware of the scope of what is being proposed.
The 7.4-acre memorial will fill the entire open space of the Mall at the
Rainbow Pool--the pool at 17th Street between the Washington Monument and
the Lincoln Memorial. It will block visitors from ever again being able to
walk the open space that connects these two monuments.
The design calls for replacing the Mall at the Rainbow Pool site with a
sunken and enclosed plaza. Whereas today someone walking from the
Washington Monument towards the Lincoln Memorial continues along the
Rainbow Pool and Reflecting Pool, taking in the great vistas and open
space, in future the visitor will descend seven feet into this memorial
plaza and at the western end encounter
a high wall and two waterfalls. The visitor will either have to turn
around and exit the memorial by way of ramps to the north and south, or
avoid the memorial altogether by walking around it, into the trees to both
sides. The design concept is for an outdoor room separate and distinct
from the Mall around it.
The Rainbow Pool site is powerful because it is directly in the center of
the Mall. Yet the design ignores the power of the location and the beauty
of the Rainbow Pool. It lowers the Pool, makes it smaller, and makes it
seem unimportant. The design includes a "sacred precinct" dominated by a
stone sarcophagus and ringed by piers, triumphal arches, and countless
sculptural details intended to add meaning. The sacred precinct creates a
cemetery in the middle of the Mall.
In 1998, the same designer came to NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts
with a similar design and was told to make some changes, including opening
pedestrian access to the west. He has failed to do this. Now, NCPC and
the Commission of Fine Arts, the two federal agencies charged with
maintaining the integrity and unique beauty of the federal city, must again
protect the national treasure which is the Mall.
World War II demanded and exacted sacrifice from the nation, from the
individuals who served, and from those who lost their lives and loved ones.
It would be the supreme irony if the memorial to that war and its legacy of
freedom preserved, were to deface forever the national symbol of those
principles in the nation's capital.
The plans and elevations are public record, available at the offices of the
NCPC (phone: 202-482-7200) and the Commission of Fine Arts (202-504-2200).
The public hearing at CFA is this Thursday, May 20, at 10 a.m., at The
Building Museum, 441 F Street, N.W., Suite 312; NCPC's hearing is
Thursday, June 3, at the NCPC offices, 801 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite
301.
Unless serious public outcry is made, within a few years the entire open
space around the Rainbow Pool will be lost forever. (543 words)
Judy Scott Feldman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Art and Architectural History, American University
Trustee, The Committee of 100 on the Federal City
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