Two weeks from today, the Winter 2012 class of Glenn Fellows will be settling into their accommodations on Capitol Hill. My hope is that they will find time to pay attention to the debate over a famous architect's design--to be reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission in February--for a memorial to Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th president. It is to be built on Independence Avenue near the Air and Space Museum.
The memorial was designed by Frank Gehry, who ranks as the brightest star in the galaxy of American architecture since the sensation caused by his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. But Gehry and his undulating titanium sculptures are controversial, and so is the question of how American heroes should properly be memorialized. To no one's surprise, the prospect of a Gehry structure on the National Mall has generated a kerfuffle. It turns out that members of the Eisenhower family find much that is objectionable in Gehry's design. Just as predictably, Philip Kennicott, the Washington Post's smart, eloquent, and irascible architectural critic, has pronounced it a great success. Stay tuned.
December 21, 2011 update: There is a fascinating display at the National Building Museum of architectural projects that were proposed but never executed in the nation's capital. See Amanda Hurley's lively review here.
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