Archinect - News

Frank Gehry shares his thoughts on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial and why he 'fell in love' with the former president's history

2020-09-21T17:39:00-04:00

In a recent interview with Boston's NPR station, WBUR, 91-year old architect Frank Gehry discussed his thoughts and perspectives on the "complicated" Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. With the dedication ceremony that took place on Sept 17th, the famed architect has expressed much irritation over criticism the design has faced in the past few months. Archinect's latest coverage of the memorial highlighted Gehry's frustration with critics and their design expectations. Gehry shared with The Guardian's Rowan Moore that critics are focusing on "arbitrary bullshit" and expecting the site "should be classical architecture."

Image courtesy of Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission

The completed design, set to be a summation of Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy, features bronze sculptures of young American soldiers, a presidential advisor, and sculptures of the former president throughout his life. The site's centerpiece is a stainless ...

Frank Gehry reflects on Eisenhower Memorial design controversies

2020-09-09T15:08:00-04:00

“I came away blindsided [by Eisenhower's legacy]. It brings tears to my eyes. How his accomplishments as a general and as a president match anything, all without the fanfare that’s going on around the president now. The opposite. He was modest but strong. A staggering accomplishment.”

Rowan Moore, architecture critic at The Observer, interviews architect Frank Gehry for The Guardian regarding the soon-to-open Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C. The contentious memorial, which drew the ire of conservative architecture critics, was developed by Gehry Partners in collaboration with AECOM, and is set to debut to the public September 17th.

In the interview, Gehry expresses frustration over criticisms lobbed at the design's contemporary approach, arguing that these critics focused on “arbitrary bullshit" by expecting that the memorial "should be classical architecture, period, and there’s no room for any invention or new expression as the world continues to change."

Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial finally breaks ground in DC

2017-11-06T14:21:00-05:00

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, designed by Frank Gehry, finally broke ground on Thursday. Sited just off Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, the four-acre memorial will celebrate Eisenhower with a series 25-meter-tall columns featuring woven metal tapestries depicting scenes of his time in the forces, his upbringing in Kansas, and events like the signing of the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction.

In the works since 1999, the road to the Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial has been full of controversy, with Gehry's design meeting multiple rounds of criticism from members of the public, government officials, and most notably, Eisenhower's relatives. Original plans called for a focus on the 34th President's humble beginnings, bothering those who felt he should be remembered for his leadership later in life. In addition, many felt the initial metal mesh tapestries invoked the Iron Curtain and were too extravagant and controversial.

View of the tapestry from the memorial core. Image...

Revised design for the Eisenhower memorial released

2017-01-17T12:59:00-05:00

The road to a Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial has been anything but smooth. Frank Gehry’s original plans for the project were nixed by critics—most notably, the Eisenhower family. But, finally, all parties reached an agreement last fall and the project is going forward. Now, Gehry and Partners and AECOM have released images of the (hopefully) final design, which will be presented publicly later this month.

The revision include changing the image depicted on the massive 440 ft.-long woven-metal tapestry. Previously, the image was going to depict Abilene, Kansas, where Eisenhower grew up. Now it’s going to show an aerial view of Normandy, site of the D-Day invasion. Additionally, a statue of a young Eisenhower was moved from the center of the site to its margins.

Gehry's modified Eisenhower Memorial design accepted by Eisenhower family

2016-09-20T12:54:00-04:00

After more than four years of wrangling over Frank Gehry's proposal for the Eisenhower memorial, the Eisenhower family has removed its objections to a modified version of the initial design. Although information about specific design changes and compromises was scant, according to Reuters the controversial steel "tapestries" will remain in some form on the family-approved version, even though Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, referred to them as invoking the problematic imagery of an "iron curtain."

For more on the fraught history of the Eisenhower Memorial:

From Z to A: Peter Zellner joins us in the studio

2015-07-16T18:27:00-04:00

This week on the podcast: Gehry's design for the Eisenhower memorial is finally approved, Zaha Hadid's Olympic Stadium in Tokyo gets cut-and-pasted into some very Japanese situations, and Peter Zellner, Principal and Design Lead of AECOM's Los Angeles architecture division, and founder of Zellnerplus, sits down for a chat.

Listen to episode thirty-eight of Archinect Sessions, "From Z to A: Peter Zellner joins us in the studio":

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Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Paul's trip to the races: Southern California Timing Association

Take a tour along the Ballona Creek bike path, from Culver City to the Pacific Ocean

At the Congressional hearing over the Eisenh...

Gehry's modified Eisenhower Memorial design gets green light from National Capital Planning Commission

2015-07-09T18:21:00-04:00

Architect Frank Gehry’s modified design for the National Eisenhower Memorial received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission Thursday, the final step in the federal approval process that has dragged on since 2011. The commission voted 9 to 1 to move forward with the design for a memorial park on a four-acre site along Independence Avenue in Southwest Washington.

Previously in the Archinect news:

Chairman of Eisenhower Memorial Commission to step down

2015-04-14T15:29:00-04:00

Eisenhower Memorial Commission chairman Rocco Siciliano will step down as leader of the board but will remain a member [...] Siciliano, who is 93, is a World War II veteran who served as a special assistant to Eisenhower in the White House ... The commission’s founding chairman, he suggested the board elect Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) to succeed him. [...] “We need a tough Marine like him to bring this project to conclusion.”

This is the latest bump in the tumultuous saga that is Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial, however it doesn't necessarily mean the project will suffer more delays. Siciliano's suggested successor, Roberts, assured his fellow commissioners in an email that Eisenhower's family was coming around to the design. The project is slated for completion in 2018, pushed back 11 years from the original projection.

Prior related news:

Big businesses and baby steps: Weekly News Round-Up for September 22 and 29, 2014

2014-10-06T18:43:00-04:00

Friday, October 3:

Eisenhower Memorial clears key hurdle on Gehry design: In a positive step for the Memorial's Approving Process Odyssey, the National Capital Planning Commission has OK'd the Commission on Fine Arts (the other federal body that must approve the design) to vote on the Memorial.
Where are the women? Measuring progress on gender in architecture: A series of infographics on the representation of women in architectural practice and education, courtesy of ACSA.

Wednesday, October 1:

Guggenheim plans New York expansion… again: Not for more art space (Gehry tried that before) but for offices.
Zaera-Polo steps down as dean of Princeton's School of Architecture: From the press release: "the school's former dean, Professor Stanley T. Allen, will serve as acting dean until a permanent successor is appointed and that Professor Allen will chair the search for the new dean."
Tiny Spanish Island to be First Energy Self-Sufficient Island: The 10,000 population island will use renewable e...

Eisenhower Memorial clears key hurdle on Gehry design

2014-10-03T18:56:00-04:00

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.

Editor's Picks #386

2014-09-25T11:58:00-04:00

Sean Smith continues his series, in which three architects discuss their transition from student to professional. Therein, Eric Höweler of Höweler + Yoon makes the point that much of running a firm is about finding work;

"In school everyone wants to be designers and have their own practice, but what most students don't connect is that having a practice is also being a businessman or woman – that you have to run a business which includes finding work, negotiating contracts and building consensus among people from different fields".

In Material Witness #4, Julia Ingalls explores how "In cinema, signage plays a duplicitous role".

News
NYC's historic 190 Bowery was part of a massive buy-up by developer RFR Holdings. Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, re-published a piece from 2008, for historical context. Fred Scharmen remembers "reading this when it originally posted. Thanks for putting it up again. Very sad that this unique space will be chewed up so that something not unique at all can take its p...

Geniuses, money and monuments: Weekly News Round-Up for September 15, 2014

2014-09-22T20:47:00-04:00

Saturday, September 20

NYC's historic 190 Bowery part of massive buy-up by developer RFR Holdings: RFR plans to spend upwards of $900M on property and land purchases by the end of 2014. One of its recent buys included the former "72-room bohemian dream house" at 190 Bowery.

Friday, September 19

MacArthur Fellow Rick Lowe Reclaims Urban Neighborhoods Through Art: Lowe is currently a resident at Philadelphia's Pearl Street Project, which aims at making dimly-lit alleyways more safe. He is also the founder of Houston's Project Row Houses.
Zaha Hadid launches luxury homeware range with Harrods: Pieces include a £9,999 serving platter, £43 cups and saucers, and £4,860 Field of Towers chess set.
Archinect is at the Salk Institute, covering the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture Conference: The three-day conference focused on topics in neuroscientific research that serve the architecture profession, including advances in mobile brain-computing interfaces and the neurological data behind...

Eisenhower Memorial to consider plan that removes most of Frank Gehry’s designs

2014-09-17T12:41:00-04:00

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission on Wednesday will review two approaches, including one that removes most of these elements. If that plan is selected, Gehry informed the commission, he will ask for his name to removed.

Apple 2 campus taking shape, NCARB names names, and cities sell out: News Round-Up for September 2, 2014

2014-09-09T18:04:00-04:00

Friday, September 5:

Beijing public transit commuters can now pay fares with empty bottles: Beijingers can insert a recyclable bottle and receive equivalent rebates in train fares or mobile phone credits.
Community Bus Stops Transform Brazil: Thousands of Brazil's bus stops are unmarked, leading fed-up residents to install their own signage under the Que Ônibus Passa Aqui? (Which Bus Stops Here?) program, one of the world's biggest community projects.
Town Becomes a Beer Ad, but Residents Don’t Feel Like a Party: Crested Butte, Colorado, population 1,500, was outfitted for a three-day party to publicize Bud Light, with 1,000 partiers vetted and shipped in by Anheuser-Busch. The town's Mayor agreed to host the party to the tune of $500,000, in part to help boost the town's mostly tourist economy during the difficult "shoulder" season between summer and winter.
Gehry's Revised Eisenhower Memorial Loses Two Controversial Tapestries, But Concerns Remain: Nitpicking continues over the Memori...

Gehry's Revised Eisenhower Memorial Loses Two Controversial Tapestries, But Concerns Remain

2014-09-05T13:36:00-04:00

[...] Frank Gehry has once again revised his design for a long-delayed memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, removing two controversial metal tapestries that would have flanked the installation and two columns. The revised design was shown today to the National Capital Planning Commission, whose members for the most part seemed receptive to moving forward with the plan. But discussion over remaining 80-foot columns — from placement to height to necessity — hinted at possible issues.

Previously

Editor's Picks #381

2014-08-19T20:36:00-04:00

Nicholas Korody penned, Shitting Architecture: the dirty practice of waste removal. Therein drawing lessons; from Slavoj Zizek on the toilet and Timothy Morton (of Object-Oriented Ontology [OOO]) on sustainability as the preservation of the status quo, he argues that "Under the weight of the ecological crisis, the world has been flattened. There is no exit".

In response, Orhan Ayyüce offered up an image of the sublimely absurd, "I am always baffled by big houses that are marketed with +5.5 bathrooms (very common in wealthy neighborhoods) and so on. And of course these host extremely hi end living styles. It is kind of funny to think all these people do all day is shit and shit and shit everywhere in the house".

For the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect featured Francis Tsai, of Francis Tsai Illustration and Concept Design, who received a Master's degree in 1993 from University of Texas in Austin.

Xenaxis "worked with Francis Tsai at Rockstar games and he was one of t...

Weekly News Round-Up for August 11, 2014: Monumental politics, smart homes and GSAPP's new dean

2014-08-18T12:53:00-04:00

Friday, August 15

Farewell to the Old Okura: The famous Hotel Okura, built in the 1960s in a distinctive fusion of modern and traditional Japanese styles, is closing in response to prohibitive earthquake retrofits and larger, newer hotels in the area.
Samsung Acquires SmartThings, A Fast-Growing Home Automation Startup: SmartThings, an aggregator for all "smart" internet-connected devices in the home, cost Samsung an estimated $200 million —chump change in comparison to Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest.

Thursday, August 14

One ridesharing app to rule them all: Ridescout moves into the competitive world of rideshare: Ridescout aggregates hundreds of ridesharing services to compare trips, and will now include "carpool" options that can help users share trips. The announcement comes after last week's news that Uber and Lyft are now both offering carpooling services.
Revisiting the American Folk Art Museum controversy, through comics: A thoughtful and diplomatic look at AFAM's his...

Eisenhower memorial, politics as usual

2014-08-13T15:41:00-04:00

Regardless, there are two paths forward. One is to scrap the project and start over with an open public competition, which would cost around $17 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The other is to push forward with the existing plan to finalize the memorial design and begin breaking ground. We favor the latter. [...] And the current design is nowhere near a “monstrosity,” as some have called it; it is a novel take on memorialization [...].

Previously

Panel rejects design for Eisenhower Memorial

2014-04-04T15:08:00-04:00

A federal commission that oversees plans for monuments in the nation's capital voted Thursday to reject the current design for a memorial honoring President Eisenhower, sending the concept back to its architects for revisions. The National Capital Planning Commission voted 7-3 to endorse its staff's report opposing the current design. The objections focus primarily on the scale and placement of columns that would hold large stainless steel tapestries framing a memorial park honoring Eisenhower.

Frank Gehry rebuffs pleas to revise Eisenhower memorial designs

2014-02-27T15:35:00-05:00

The Commission of Fine Arts [...] has praised Gehry’s designs in the past but asked him to consider minor revisions. [...] In response, Gehry submitted a redesign that incorporates a few dozen more trees – but left the basic components of the memorial untouched. Gehry did not attend the presentation of the new designs last week, and an architect at his firm said: “We are staying with the overall big ideas for the project.”

Previously

Proposed Eisenhower memorial hits snag

2013-09-11T14:05:00-04:00

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission has canceled its Thursday appearance before the National Capital Planning Commission to seek preliminary approval for the memorial honoring Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a statement Tuesday, the memorial commission cited the need to address requests for additional information contained in an NCPC staff report, announced late last week, as the reason for the delay.

Obama names critic of Gehry’s design to Eisenhower Memorial Commission to oversee DC project

2013-09-04T13:07:00-04:00

President Barack Obama is appointing a known critic of the planned Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial design to serve on the federal commission that oversees the project. The White House announced Obama’s intent to appoint former National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Bruce Cole last month, but it drew little attention while Congress was in recess. Cole led the humanities endowment under former President George W. Bush.

Editor's Picks #322

2013-07-02T12:00:00-04:00

News
RIP - Iconic Danish architect Henning Larsen died in his sleep in his home in Copenhagen on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Henning Larsen was 87 years old.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker of the Washington Post reported that after 14 years in the making and despite recent protests over the Gehry design, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission voted "to move forward with the Frank Gehry-designed memorial to the 34th president". have cheered "Hopefully the pious "National" Civic Art Society can now go bankrupt. LOL!"

Orhan Ayyüce posted a link to #occupygeziarchitecture where a group of architects are documenting the temporary structures that were destroyed by the police in Gezi Park, Istanbul. The group explains "The protests in Istanbul indicated one simple thing for architects (designers?): We need new definitions for architecture in situations when architecture is removed from architects.Each unique structure that we encounter in the streets and Gezi Park has its own in-situ design and impl...

Updated Frank Gehry design for Eisenhower memorial approved by commission

2013-06-24T12:11:00-04:00

The vote came after Gehry presented the latest changes in the design, which included the restoration of bas-relief sculptures that had been eliminated in an earlier design and alterations in the statues of a young Dwight D. Eisenhower and of Eisenhower as president and World War II general. Excerpts from Eisenhower’s Guildhall Address, delivered after the allied victory in Europe and considered his most important speech, were also approved for the memorial.

Architects Issue Statement Opposing House Bill Eliminating Funding for Eisenhower Memorial

2013-03-15T13:32:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today issued the following statement in opposition to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Completion Act, introduced Wednesday by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). Among other things, the legislation would mandate an alternative to architect Frank Gehry's design for the Eisenhower Memorial and would eliminate further federal funding for the project.

Approval for Eisenhower Memorial planned for Washington likely delayed into 2013 amid dispute

2012-11-19T20:24:00-05:00

“I would hate to stop the process and lose the momentum, especially since a lot of time, money, and effort has been expended on this memorial,” he wrote. “However, given the continued opposition with the Eisenhower family, I question whether we can ever resolve the differences ... and whether it would be in our best interest to continue to move forward.”

Eisenhower Memorial? There’s an App for That

2012-09-04T17:04:00-04:00

Thanks to augmented reality technology being implemented by media design firm Local Projects LLC, visitors can look at Gehry’s steel tapestries through their smartphone cameras to see what otherwise isn’t there: video and audio recordings that tell more of Ike’s story, even in Ike’s own voice. And children carrying smartphones (which seem to be all of them these days) will be on a scavenger hunt for hidden messages throughout the memorial.

Interior Secretary Salazar to review Eisenhower Memorial designs

2012-06-08T12:13:00-04:00

The embattled Eisenhower Memorial in Washington has drawn the interest of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who will be reviewing the designs by architect Frank Gehry. The request could result in yet another delay for the project, which has already been plagued by a number of disagreements.

Frank Gehry unveils changes to Eisenhower Memorial design

2012-05-17T13:54:00-04:00

New changes to the contentious design for the Eisenhower Memorial were publicly unveiled on Tuesday at a session in Washington. Architect Frank Gehry made the adjustments following complaints by members of the Eisenhower family that the design put too much emphasis on the former president's upbringing in Kansas and not enough on his accomplishments as a military and political leader.

Architect Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial design: The plan and what went wrong

2012-05-14T17:30:00-04:00

To some, it seemed an unlikely fit, Gehry designing a memorial honoring Ike, but that impression was always based on two misunderstandings. There is a vulgar idea that Gehry is all about flamboyant buildings, radical structures acclaimed by critics but derided by common sense. The popular perception of Ike is no more accurate.