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 [...]. — washingtonpost.com

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. — bigstory.ap.org

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.” — theguardian.com

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. — washingtonpost.com

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. — washingtonpost.com

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. — articles.washingtonpost.com

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. — aia.org

“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.” — washingtonpost.com

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. — blogs.artinfo.com

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. — latimes.com

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. — latimes.com

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. — washingtonpost.com