Courtesy Gehry Partners
Eisenhower Memorial pedestrian experience
Across from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is a four-acre parcel, to be renamed Eisenhower Square, that will host the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. Designed by Los Angeles–based Gehry Partners, which was selected from a pool of four finalists in a GSA Design Excellence Program competition, the scheme calls for the square to be lined on three sides by woven-metal tapestries. The tapestries, which are supported by 80-foot-tall columns, depict the Great Plains and Eisenhower’s home in Abilene, Kan. At the center of the square, amid a grove of oak trees, two monumental bas-reliefs depict Eisenhower as the 34th president of the United States and as the supreme commander of the Allied Forces in World War II, respectively; these flank a setback podium featuring a seated life-size statue of the president as a young man in Abilene. A wall behind all three sculptural elements features excerpts from Eisenhower’s speeches. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which was created by Congress in 1999, projects a 2015 completion date.
