But I don’t see how steel tapestries, or bulwarks, or depictions of Eisenhower’s boyhood accomplish this. Would we have Lincoln splitting rails! What is it that could make this work? During World War II, I saw the newsreels that brought the relief and exhilaration of success in defeating our enemies.

The pictures in my mind are of the rubble, and what it must have been like for General Eisenhower to command soldiers through this mire and then return to lead this country, still democratic and free. Instead of the planned cold steel of enclosing walls whose materials recall the instruments of war, I would choose materials of stone. Gravel and rock on swelling ground better expresses distances walked by our soldiers, rubble, Normandy dunes, and even with a little imagination, the Eisenhower farm. Some life-size bronze statues that lead us through a grove of trees to a quiet place might assist in the contemplation of the magnitude of Eisenhower’s accomplishments.

The most significant quality needed in this monument is the experience of freedom. We do not need to hear the sound of his speeches that are available on the internet. Too often, the new media approach tells us what we should think. Instead, Eisenhower is better embodied in a space that offers the public the peace and dignity of silent discovery and the freedom of thought.

Lucy J. Blankstein
Washington, DC

The most difficult part of creation is giving up part of a design that is deep in the artist’s heart, but if it is not working in the unique place where it will be sited, it must be used somewhere else. Gehry is a creative architect He can revision this monument for this site. Hopefully, he is a great enough architect to take on this challenge.

The process is flawed, and as Leon Krier has graphically demonstrated, the problem begins with the grandiose scale of the site itself.

As my Face Book posts for several years now will attest, my admiration for Susan Eisenhower is not circumspect; and may well be boundless; however, I do not agree with the concept of campanile bell tower ( albeit the symbolism and the purpose are understandable).

A man of towering strength and steadfast logic and purpose, President Eisenhower was no St Francis of Assisi, nor perhaps even religious in the conventional sense. His sonorous voice announcing the Normandy invasion, inspiring and disseminating hope is more rhapsodic than any tone emanating from such a contrivance.
No architect I, nor urban planner, but I am impassioned on this issue. There is some contentiousness here, to be sure. Susan’s comments cite perhaps the most incredible of achievements of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the ability to hold together a fragile alliance, during the war, and later at NATO.

In terms of vision; I would like to see 5 large stars in relief, each commemorating an element in his career; e.g., West Point, Supreme Commander, Columbia, NATO, President. Perhaps against a granite backdrop from which recordings of his masterful elocution would emerge.

It any event, I am continuing to follow this with considerable interest and posting about it on Face Book.

To me, the problem is neither the style of architecture nor the boy versus man argument. Nor is it whether this is more of a Gehry Memorial than an Eisenhower Memorial.

Rather, it does not put the right man in the right space, as the memorial easily could and should.

Ike the general successfully molded Patton, Montgomery, and Bradley, with their disparate and conflicting styles of leadership, into a working relationship that won WWII in the European Theatre. Ike the president worked out his differences with Roosevelt’s New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Democratic Senate, and the military-industrial complex, as he called it.

The Maryland Avenue space symbolically presents the same problems that Ike faced as general and as president. The buildings the memorial must deal with are as different as Patton, Montgomery, and Bradley. The buildings are even more symbolic of the issues Ike dealt with as president: the Wilbur Cohen Building is the New Deal both in time and name; the LBJ building’s symbolism is eponymous; the NASA museum contains the highest achievements of the military-industrial complex.

The key to Ike’s success was that he found a way to work with disparate people and conflicting ideologies. He did not try to repeal the New Deal; he worked with LBJ; and he solidified his place in history with a caution against the excesses of the military industrial complex that only he could deliver.

The Gehry Memorial does not exploit any of this obvious symbolism and in fact completely misses Ike the general and president by neglecting the surrounding buildings. Ike would never agree to such an affront to LBJ as the Gehry Memorial proposes.

My cholce of memorial would fit into Roger K. Lewis’s plan. I would create a campanile bell tower that would rise above the other buildings but unify them with a central column. Bell sounds would reach out in harmony to the buildings and the neighborhood. The campanile would not necessarily be either traditional or modern, but pick up the best design elements of the neighboring buildings just as Ike was able to make use of the best qualities of the people he dealt with.

Martin Luther King has a full-sized statue on the Mall, as he rightfully should, as the voice of the Civil Rights movement. But the argument could be made that Dwight Eisenhower did much of the heavy lifting of the Civil Rights movement. And I wonder if that doesn’t make him an inconvenient truth to the Democrats. Hence Gehry’s design for the memorial, which while grand in scale, marginalizes the man it is supposed to honor, by portraying him as a small boy. If the sculptor who made the statue of Martin Luther King had portrayed him as a small, barefoot boy, would the King family or the black community have approved of THAT statue? No, they’d be outraged! And rightfully so. So why treat Ike in that manner?

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I am a conservative (my representative is Aaron Schock, who I’m proud to say has taken on this issue). But I would hate to think that partisanship has a part in the design of Dwight Eisenhower’s memorial. He deserves better than that.

1. A small boy of ten.

2. Cadet Eisenhower at West Point

3. Lt. Eisenhower in Mexico

4. Gen. Eisenhower in WWII

5. President Eisenhower during The Cold War

Accompanied by plaques that explains his dreams and/or major achievements at each stage.