Eisenhower Memorial: Gehry Approved

A government planning agency granted preliminary approval Thursday to a smaller version of the controversial Frank Gehry design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. Is it just me, or is this design a little more uninspired than Gehry’s usual work? Is that supposed to reflect the hardly scintillating personality of Ike? Anyway, The 10-to-1 vote by the National Capital Planning Commission represented a significant milestone for the tribute to the World War II general and 34th president, which has been stalled since 2011. The vote allows the Eisenhower Memorial Commission to take its new design to the Commission of Fine Arts, the other federal agency that must give a green light before construction can begin. The vote came after a robust discussion of the function and scale of key elements of the memorial, to be built on four acres along Independence Avenue SW.

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