|
|
A Failed Process
Thus, at every turn, the existing process has failed or been thwarted. A public process has been stymied. Historic preservation has been ignored. Attempts to assure a memorial that properly honors WWII while also respecting the Mall have been abandoned. Once the CFA proposed and then approved the Mall site, and then later when the ABMC kept on with the architect of a rejected design, one agency after another eventually fell into line. The result in this case is a memorial that is a marriage of poor design, expediency, and neglect. It is the formal triumphalist military vision of the ABMC wedded to the security and crowd-control needs of the National Park Service and Park Police.
It is further abetted by federal agencies beholden to the political climates in which they operate. President Clinton rushed to dedicate the Rainbow Pool site on Veterans Day 1995 and he is now planning to break ground on the WWII Memorial on Veterans Day of this year. ABMC only argues that it must be rushed to completion before all the WWII veterans die.
Why all this has occurred is another matter entirely. Certainly the veterans lobby has played a part, as Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) sadly discovered when he first led the opposition to the site in 1997. Equally important is the fact that the $100 million is being solicited from private funding sources with the help of Hollywood and multi-million-dollar corporations playing influential roles. Congressional oversight might have been more vigorous had public funds been involved, one could hopefully assume.
Next: In conclusion ...
Back to the top
|
|
|
ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
• Needed: A National Mall Conservancy
• Changing Face of the National Public Space
• Memories & Mishaps
• Dead End for the Freedom Trail?
• This Singular Space: Against the Memorial
• Media Coverage & Commentary
• Public Testimonials
• Mall Watch
• Additional Resources on the Web
and more ...
TESTIMONY/COMMENTS
• May 30, 2010, Coalition comments on the proposed Environmental Document for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial
• April 8, 2010, Coalition comments on NPS Turf Plan
• June 4, 2009, Latest comments on Vietnam Visitors Center
• May 26, 2009, Nonprofits comment on Park Service "National Mall Plan"
• May 26, 2009, Park Service responds to nonprofits' May and Dec 2008 joint letters
• March 26, 2007, NPS Mall Plan: Additional Comments by the NPCA
• March 12, 2007, NPS Mall Plan: Comments by Save Our Mall
• January 15, 2007, NPS Mall Plan: Comments by Guild of Professional Tour Guides
• December 26, 2006, NPS Mall Plan: Comments by the NPCA
• August 3, 2006: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center project
• October 6, 2005: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center project
• July 21, 2005: Commission of Fine Arts on Lincoln Memorial Security
• April 12, 2005: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on National Parks
• March 17, 2005: Lincoln Memorial Security/ CFA
LETTERS
• April 12, 2005: The Honorable Craig Thomas, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate
MEDIA COVERAGE
• Washington Monument Security
• World War II Memorial
• Vietnam Veterans Education Center
• African American History Museum
and more ...
|
|
