Summary: The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission and the General Services Administration selected Gehry Partners, LLP, the Los Angeles-based architecture firm headed by Frank O. Gehry, FAIA, as lead designer of the national memorial to Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower Memorial will be the seventh national presidential memorial in the nation’s capital and the first since the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial opened in 1997.

The Gehry team was one of four finalists in a three-stage competition that began with 44 design firms from across the United States. Evaluation factors included previous work, interviews, and responses to the memorial’s pre-design program, which addressed the Eisenhower legacy and physical parameters of the memorial site. “It’s appropriate to have one of today’s most outstanding architects design a memorial for one of our country’s greatest leaders,” says Memorial Commission Chairman Rocco C. Siciliano.

In addition to members of the Gehry firm, the design team comprises landscape architects EDAW, Inc.; lighting designers L’Observatoire International; and information designers ESI Design.

The memorial will be built on a prime four-acre site to be named Eisenhower Square, which is at the base of Capitol Hill and across from the National Air & Space Museum. The memorial, which has yet to be designed, will be a landscaped civic plaza that respects vistas to and from the U.S. Capitol and the historic Maryland Avenue view corridor.

Other finalist firms were Krueck & Sexton Architects (Chicago), Peter Walker, PWP Landscape Architecture (Berkeley), and Rogers Marvel Architects (New York City).

The Eisenhower legacy
At a time when the national attention is on infrastructure and public safety, it is fitting to remember that Eisenhower led America to invest in the Interstate Highway System, completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration, notes the Memorial Commission. He took America into space and worked to ensure that it would be explored for scientific, not military purposes. He ended the Korean War and created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He laid the groundwork for major advancements in civil rights through legislation; the Civil Rights Act of 1957; and, through executive authority, integration in Little Rock, Ark., and desegregation of Washington, D.C. A soldier from America’s heartland, Eisenhower became a president dedicated to building peace based on international cooperation and respect.

“My family and I are pleased that America will honor my grandfather’s leadership as a president, a general, and as a selfless public servant,” said Commissioner David Eisenhower, who served on both the jury and the evaluation panel.

GSA—whose Design Excellence Program streamlines the way it hires architects and engineers while retaining the rigorous competitive requirements of federal contracting—began the memorial competition in August 2008. It sought design teams with four core disciplines: architecture, landscape architecture, lighting design, and information design, as well as project management.. A jury of experts and an evaluation panel of design peers, GSA architects, and representatives of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission were involved in the selection.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission was created by Congress in 1999 to manage the memorial development. The bipartisan commission—composed of four senators, four representatives, and four private citizens—is led by Siciliano and Vice Chairman Senator Daniel K. Inouye, both combat-decorated World War II veterans. “Celebrating General Eisenhower’s leadership in both World War II and as president is especially meaningful to me in the 50th anniversary year of Hawaii’s admission into the Union as the 50th state,” Inouye said. “On August 21, 1959, I was in the White House together with other elected Hawaii officials to witness the signing of the Statehood Bill by President Eisenhower. This is a moment of great memories.”