War and remembrance: WWII Memorial deserves its place on the National Mall

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War and remembrance: WWII Memorial deserves its place on the National Mall

Sunday, October 29, 2000

By Donald Miller, Post-Gazette Senior Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The World War II Memorial, despite a court case aimed at stopping its "intrusion" on the National Mall, will be a magnificent addition to the capital. It will honor all Americans who defended this country and its allies against totalitarian tyranny.

Donald Miller is the former art critic of the Post-Gazette.

Groundbreaking is set for Veterans Day, Nov. 11. A portion of the $140 million that has been raised for the 7.4-acre project -- the width of an oval football field -- will be for perpetual maintenance.

In 1993, Congress authorized the American Battle Monuments Commission to establish such a memorial in Washington. Friedrich St.Florian, former dean of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, won a design competition that drew more than 400 submissions in 1996.

In 1998, the National Park Service made an environmental assessment of the memorial and found no significant negative impact on the historic site. The design won preliminary approval in 1999. Washington's Leo A. Daley, architect of record, is responsible for construction documents. St.Florian will oversee the design. Several engineering and technical firms will support him.

The Kaskey Studio Inc., headed by prize-winning sculptor Raymond Kaskey, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, will create the memorial's sculpture.

Memorial flap

On Oct. 4, the National Coalition to Save Our Mall and others filed suit in U.S. District Court to stop the National Park Service from issuing a construction permit for the memorial. Their aim is to force the selection process to begin anew. That would be a terrible waste, given that the National Capital Planning Commission's final design approval on Sept. 21 cleared the way for a long-awaited groundbreaking.

The American Battle Monuments Commission plans to begin construction early next year and expresses confidence it will receive a favorable court ruling. The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans groups have strongly criticized the suit.

The litigants contend the public did not receive proper notice that the present Rainbow Pool site, at the east end of the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, was added in 1995 to the list of published sites under consideration. The suit argues that the memorial defies the Commemorative Works Act of 1986 that protects the capital's open public spaces and vistas, and particularly the National Mall.

At least seven newspapers disagree. According to a Washington Post editorial, "The victory of democracy over totalitarianism in the last century deserves to be prominently remembered. The proposed memorial will do so while enhancing, not marring, the Mall."

The present Elm Walk will be preserved. And where trees have to be removed, more will be added to the walk area, Kaskey said.

The Washington Times wrote: "The proposed monument is a refreshing combination of water and light, pillars and arches. ... The American Battle Monuments Commission could not have picked a better year and place to erect the national monument. Here, finally, in the middle of our nation's capital, is a place for America's World War II heroes to feel at home and for their families and countrymen to pay homage to their service."

Thomas Sulkowski, manager of the American Institute of Architects bookstore in Washington, concurs: "I rather like the plan and don't see it as a great infringement on the Mall. Besides, there is so much support for the memorial nothing will prevent it from happening."

A magical effect

Raymond Kaskey hopes that is true. He plans to produce a considerable amount of figurative sculpture, in bronze and carved stone, for the project and has already spent much time and effort designing the sculptural program that will enhance the memorial's extensive use of stone -- mostly light gray granite with dark flecks.

Kaskey, a handsome man with shaggy white hair who is happiest in his studio in nearby Brentwood, Md., believes his latest work will be his masterpiece. After seeing many models of the memorial and sculptures in architect Daley's office, one has to agree.

The sculptor is best known for "Portlandia," a heroic beaten-copper figure 36 feet tall and 16 feet wide -- for which his wife, Sherry, posed -- on architect Michael Graves' Portland, Ore., city hall. Done 15 years ago, the huge work was the first to invest figural sculpture with renewed importance following decades of abstract sculpture. Kaskey, although trained in abstract art, has stayed true to his uphill figural path in many commissions since then.

Pittsburghers know best his bronze likeness of late Steelers owner Art Rooney, soon to leave Three Rivers Stadium for the Steelers' new home on the North Shore.

Among Kaskey's major commissions are:

"Justice Delayed, Justice Denied," a large bronze of the blindfolded goddess, Justice, holding her scales on the U.S. Court House, Alexandria, Va.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, Washington, D.C, with its four bronze sets of gentle lion families in a public square.

Figures of construction workers saluting the building trades on exterior corners of the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.

"The Gem of the Lakes" sculpture, Chicago, saluting the city's history.

The tipsy "Queen Charlotte," consort of George III, trying to hold onto her anti-revolution crown atop a column at Charlotte-Douglas, N.C., International Airport.

Kaskey brings a vivid imagination inspired by classical motifs and symbols to his work. For the World War II Memorial he will produce:

Two bronze baldachins -- or freestanding arches with an altar-like feeling perhaps slightly recalling Bernini's in St. Peter's, Rome -- will rise inside two 40-foot-tall stone arches resembling open pavilions. Four bronze American eagles with outstretched wings 12 feet wide will crown each baldachin. Ribbons around their necks will support a garland of laurel, metaphor for victorious soldiers returning home.

During the day, natural light will illuminate the baldachins through oculi -- circular openings in each roof. At night, light from the floor and from above the victory laurel will produce a magical effect.

A rope design for balustrades on either side of the memorial will heighten the sense of the nation's unity during World War II. These ropes are a powerful sculptural addition to the architecture, Kaskey believes, enhancing the idea of bonding, closing ranks and being linked together in a common cause.

Sculpted bronze oak and wheat laurels will adorn the pillars, alternating front and back. The oak laurel symbolizes the nation's industrial might, arsenal of the world. The wheat laurel represents the nation's agricultural strength and role as world food source.

Bronze relief panels 18 inches tall and 5 feet wide will depict America's pre-war unpreparedness, the homefront, working women such as Rosie the Riveter, the six branches of the military and the aftermath of the war. These will be mounted at the memorial's ceremonial entrance. "It will be a memorial the people can respond to," said Kaskey, whose plan for the Vietnam Memorial, also a classical idea, was passed over for Maya Lin's wall design.

Still to be designed is a "Light of Freedom," expected to rise from the Rainbow Pool inside an oval ring of arching water jets.

All-encompassing

This will be the first national memorial dedicated to all who served in the United States' armed forces and Merchant Marine during the 1941-45 war. It also will acknowledge the entire nation's commitment and achievement -- no less than the triumph of democracy.

Honored will be all military veterans of the war, citizens on the home front, the nation at large and the high moral purpose and idealism that motivated the nation's call to arms.

That roll call includes the 16 million Americans who served in uniform during the war, the more than 400,000 who died and the millions who supported the war effort at home

More lyrical than the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial with its dark stones, bronze figures, plaques and waterfalls along the Tidal Basin nearby, the WWII Memorial will replace the under-maintained Rainbow Pool on the site facing 17th Street across from the sloping lawn leading to the Washington Monument.

The memorial will begin at street level, dipping gradually to the enhanced pool. From the street, structures will be recessed six feet to keep sight-lines open from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial and vice versa, a very important consideration so that the new structures will not interfere with the older ones and so that the Mall's greenness will be maintained.

Embracing the two memorial arches and the pool, reduced in size to accommodate the new design, will be 56 freestanding flat-topped pillars, representing America's then 48 states and eight territories, including Hawaii and Alaska. The pillars will bear the bronze oak and wheat laurels described above. Pillar bases will be engraved with names of U.S. states and territories. The pillars will be split vertically to give them a semi-columnar suggestion and more "transparency," allowing viewers to see through them.

Between the tall memorial arches and behind the pool, the Freedom Wall will rise with a field of 4,000-plus five-pointed stars. Each faceted metal star will stand out from the wall on a metal pin, catching the light, and will represent 100 fallen military personnel. The impact is expected to be a strong testimony to their sacrifices. The motif was chosen over a plaque or other artwork because of the five-pointed star's prominence during the war, particularly in American windows, to indicate citizens in the service.

On each side of the Freedom Wall, two wide single waterfalls will add further beauty to the plan. Their placement will suggest they are flowing from the reflecting pool leading to the Lincoln Memorial. The new Rainbow Pool will be the memorial's center of attention. Its horizontal length will act as the terminus of the older reflecting pool.

The new pool will have rounded ends like those unearthed at Herculaneum, Italy. The memorial plan also has an affinity with 17th-century Versailles. And since architect Pierre L'Enfant designed the District of Columbia in relationship to the placement of buildings at Versailles, St.Florian's design is particularly germane to the American capital.

St.Florian, Daley and Kaskey are well aware of the constant upkeep necessary for the arching waters planned for the pool, which is one of the main reasons for the large maintenance fund. "All monuments need constant maintenance," Kaskey contends. And who would argue?

With this design, the nation will at long last have a memorial worthy of the people and events it commemorates. Further, the plan will greatly improve a neglected area of the National Mall.

Kaskey is confident of success.

"Raising $140 million based only on the monument's visuals indicates people liked it enough to contribute to it," he said.