The American Conservative: Eisenhower Memorial Carried Forward by Resignation Not Momentum
Micah Meadowcraft writes for The American Conservative: Will Eisenhower Ever Have a Fitting Memorial? By MICAH MEADOWCROFT • March 8, 2017, 12:00 AM Few seem to really like it, but for now it seems to be limping along to somewhere. That sentiment describes the latest chapter in the saga of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. It was commissioned … Read more
Video of National Civic Art Society U.S. House Briefing on the Eisenhower Memorial
After 15 years and $40 million spent, Frank Gehry’s wildly unpopular design for the National Eisenhower Memorial is on life support. Not a shovel of dirt has been turned, Congress zeroed all construction funding, and the National Capital Planning Commission denied preliminary approval. Recently, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment voted to eliminate … Read more
NCAS Slams Ike Memorial at Fine Arts Commission, Says Central Statue Belongs in a Snow-globe
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 22, 2013 CONTACT: [email protected] or (202) 670-1776 National Civic Art Society Slams Ike Memorial at Fine Arts Commission, Says Central Statue Belongs in a Snow-globe On Thursday, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts–the federal agency tasked with protecting the aesthetics of the National Mall–took up the planned National Eisenhower Memorial. (For news stories on the event, … Read more
National Civic Art Society Decries Manipulated Images in Eisenhower Memorial Marketing Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2013 CONTACT: [email protected] or (202) 670-1776 National Civic Art Society Decries Manipulated Images in Eisenhower Memorial Marketing Campaign Desperate for public support for the highly unpopular design of the National Eisenhower Memorial, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission has launched a website called “Ike 2012” (http://www.iLikeIke2012.com). A mock presidential campaign, it pretends that the former president is … Read more
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Ike Memorial Is Postmodern and Meaningless
Paul Greenberg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, writes: I Like Ike LITTLE ROCK — Ordinarily, the news that a long overdue memorial to an historic American leader has been put on hold still again would come as a disappointment. But if you’ve seen the innocuous design for an Eisenhower memorial in the nation’s … Read more
Boston Globe’s Architecture Critic: Eisenhower Memorial Design Should Be Scrubbed
Robert Campbell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Boston Globe, wrote a hard-hitting article detailing numerous irredemiable flaws in Frank Gehry’s avant-garde design for the Eisenhower Memorial. It’s way too big. It’s too cartoony. Someone should scrub the design and start over. It’s the proposal for a memorial to Dwight Eisenhower, the World War … Read more
Stars and Stripes: Critics Continue Assault on Eisenhower Memorial Design
Stars and Stripes reports: Critics Continue Assault on Eisenhower Memorial Design By C.J. Lin Published: September 18, 2012 Critics of the planned memorial honoring former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington D.C. continued their assault on the design by famed architect Frank Gehry on Tuesday, calling instead for a smaller memorial within an urban park … Read more
Richard Cohen in WaPo: Ike Memorial Doesn’t “Imitate His Life”
Writing in the Washington Post, opinion columnist Richard Cohen criticizes the design for the Eisenhower Memorial, which he says depicts the president as “an eternal innocent”: With Eisenhower, Art Does Not Imitate His Life One day in 1967, Dwight D. Eisenhower came to New York for the opening of an exhibition of his paintings at … Read more
Times of Trenton: Eisenhower Memorial “Anti-Heroic,” “Pedestrian”
The Times of Trenton (New Jersey) published the following excellent op-ed: Opinion: The brilliance of Dwight D. Eisenhower Published: Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 6:38 AM By Gregory J. Sullivan “Eisenhower was not a political sophisticate; he was a political genius.”— Garry Wills The gathering storm of opposition over the anti-heroic design by Frank Gehry for … Read more
George Will: Eisenhower Memorial Misses the Man
Writing in the Washington Post, George F. Will joins the chorus opposing the design for the Eisenhower Memorial. He also emphasizes why Eisenhower deserves a national memorial. (For more on why Eisenhower has been underrated, see also Fred I. Greenstein’s excellent book The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader.): Eisenhower Memorial Misses the Man By George … Read more
Leon Krier: Eisenhower Memorial Design Is an XXL Anti-Monument
World-famous architect Leon Krier–an expert on Washington, D.C.’s architecture and urban planning–published a piercingly intelligent critique of the design for the Eisenhower Memorial in Metropolis Magazine: Eisenhower Memorial, Washington, D.C. By Leon Krier Image from designboom The Eisenhower Memorial competition and project have stirred a remarkable polemic, the center of which is not President Eisenhower … Read more
Better Cities & Towns: NCAS Report on the Eisenhower Memorial Is “Devastating”
At Better! Cities & Towns, one of the best publications devoted to urban planning, Philip Langdon penned what is perhaps the most thorough article yet on the flawed design of Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial: . . . The most scathing response to the design has been a 153-page report, “The Gehry Towers Over Eisenhower,” issued in … Read more
Foreign Policy Magazine: “Who Likes Ike? Not Frank Gehry”
Writing for Foreign Policy, Stephen W. Walt, the esteemed professor of international relations at Harvard, scathingly reviews Frank Gehry’s avant-garde design for the Eisenhower Memorial. Who Likes Ike? Not Frank Gehry The family of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower is now weighing in against renowned architect Frank Gehry’s proposed design for an Eisenhower Memorial on … Read more