Posted by artscivica on September 7, 2014 · Leave a Comment
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
Category "columns", "tapestries", anti-heroism, bloated size, Bruce Cole, Catesby Leigh, classical and traditional architecture, closed competition, Congressional opposition, Congressman Rob Bishop, debris, durability, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edward A. Feiner, Eisenhower Family, Eisenhower Memorial Commission, exorbitant cost, Frank Gehry, Freedom of Information Act Request, GSA, impermanence, Justin Shubow, Kansas, maintenance cost, memorial funding, Modernism, National Capital Planning Commission, National Civic Art Society, National Park Service, NCAS Report on the Eisenhower Memorial, New Eisenhower Memorial Competition, Philip Kennicott, President Barack Obama, private fundraising, public opposition, Robert Wilson, Rocco C. Siciliano, Soviet style, starchitects, statuary, tapestry, Teresita Fernández, the Memorial and the law, theater for cars, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, U.S. House Subcommittee on Public Lands
Posted by artscivica on December 4, 2012 · Leave a Comment
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
Posted by artscivica on February 13, 2012 · Leave a Comment
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pulitzer-Prize winner David Shribman thoughtfully weighs in on the controversy regarding how President Eisenhower ought to be memorialized. His article does an excellent job at placing Eisenhower in historical context. National Perspective: Which Ike to Like? By David Shribman In World War II, he tamed America’s allies and conquered its adversaries. … Read more
Posted by artscivica on February 13, 2012 · Leave a Comment
The American Spectator magazine published a scathing critique of the planned memorial to President Eisenhower: A Monstrosity, Not a Monument Frank Gehry’s design for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington is an insult to all concerned. By Tom Bethell . . . The architect chosen to design the memorial is Frank Gehry and you surely have … Read more
Category "columns", "tapestries", closed competition, Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Frank Gehry, Kansas, National Civic Art Society, Pierre L'Enfant, public opposition, Robert Wilson, Rocco C. Siciliano
Posted by artscivica on January 31, 2012 · Leave a Comment
WORLD magazine published a piercing critique of the planned Eisenhower Memorial: Mystic chords: The Proposed Eisenhower Memorial Reflects a Nation that has Forgotten Greatness . . . The Eisenhower National Memorial was commissioned in 1999, but the design was not unveiled until late last year, to a mixed reception. Early in January the controversy exploded … Read more
Category "columns", "tapestries", anti-heroism, barefoot boy Eisenhower statue, David Eisenhower, Eisenhower Family, Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Frank Gehry, Kansas, National Civic Art Society, public opposition
Posted by artscivica on January 31, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Writing in the Washington Post, Roger K. Lewis, an esteemed architect and emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, severely criticizes Frank Gehry’s design for the national Eisenhower Memorial: Architect Frank Gehry’s design for the congressionally authorized memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower is creatively unconventional, innovative in form and use of materials, monumental in … Read more
Category "columns", "tapestries", barefoot boy Eisenhower statue, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower Family, Frank Gehry, Kansas, National Capital Planning Commission, NCAS Report on the Eisenhower Memorial, public opposition, the Memorial and the law, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
Posted by artscivica on January 31, 2012 · 1 Comment
Susan Eisenhower has launched an exciting new blog (www.susaneisenhower.com) to express her criticisms of the planned Memorial to honor her grandfather, President Eisenhower. We encourage to read her thoughtful, highly persuasive commentary. The entire Eisenhower family has previously written a letter calling for a halt to the Memorial. And in December 2011, David Eisenhower … Read more
Posted by artscivica on January 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Adding to the growing opposition from Kansas, the Topeka Capital-Journal editorializes against Frank Gehry’s design for the Eisenhower Memorial: Is the story of Dwight D. Eisenhower about a small-town Kansas boy or about one of the 20th century’s greatest military leaders who became our nation’s 34th president? The answer to that question, as everyone knows, … Read more
Posted by artscivica on January 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment
NPR’s “All Things Considered” aired an excellent report on the Memorial, which you can listen to here. Listen to the voice of Daniel J. Feil, the executive architect of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, to hear how defensive he sounds. That NPR mentions the “Unbuilt Washington” exhibit at the National Building Museum strongly suggests that this … Read more
Posted by artscivica on January 13, 2012 · Leave a Comment
The people of Kansas are starting to learn just how offensive the Eisenhower Memorial is. Brandon James Smith writes in the Wichita Eagle: Eisenhower is, without a doubt, one of Kansas’ best-known citizens. . . . But the current plans for the memorial are a postmodern monstrosity of enormous concrete pillars and steel tapestries lording … Read more
