November 28, 2007
Dear Coalition Friends:
The National Capital Planning Commission will be reviewing "concept design" for the proposed Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visitor Center next Thursday, December 6. The meeting starts at 12:30 p.m. at NCPC's offices, 401 9th Street, NW, North Lobby, Suite 500.
This proposed design concept is hugely controversial. Please take a few moments to learn the facts and comment to NCPC.
If you wish to submit comments or testify, call 202-472-7200. The agenda and instructions for submitting testimony is posted HERE .
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, and others will be testifying against the current design. Why? It proposes a 34,000 square foot facility with open-air ramps, skylights, and below-grade but open-air courtyards on the recreational fields north of the Lincoln Memorial (part of the Lincoln Memorial grounds).
To learn more about why this proposed design concept is controversial--above and beyond the fact that Congress exempted it from the 2003 moratorium--take a look at our website. At http://www.savethemall.org, right column "WHAT'S NEW", we have posted:
- a one-pager that shows the proposed design's destructive effect on the Lincoln Memorial landscape
- comments sharply critical of the design and the National Park Service's handling of the public consultation process from The National Trust for Historic Preservation
- additional comments from the National Coalition to Save Our Mall
- comments from a Vietnam Veterans group, Equal Honor For All
- a letter from the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation reminding the National Park Service of their responsibility to schedule a public meeting to consider alternative design concepts
- The National Park Service's signed Finding Of No Significant Impact for this project issued on November 1, which ignores all the above comments and rejects any need for consideration of alternative design concepts
When Congress authorized the Center in 2003, it stipulated that the facility would be "underground" and of minimum size necessary. But in the interim the design has grown in size twice; while the facility is below-grade, it is not fully "underground" but has numerous open-air and paved elements that will destroy the historic landscape quality of this area near both the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Other, less destructive design concepts need to be seriously considered.
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