Frank Gehry’s National Eisenhower Memorial

The world-famous architect has adjusted his original design in response to criticism from the Eisenhower family.

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The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission held a meeting May 15 to view models of the latest designs and newest refinements made to the memorial designed by Frank Gehry.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

John Bowers, project architect with Gehry Partners, LLP, explains the updates to the memorial plan.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

Statues of Eisenhower as president and general replace bas relief sculptures.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

Stone blocks provide space for listing Eisenhower’s accomplishments and quotations.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

Stone blocks provide space for listing Eisenhower’s accomplishments and quotations.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

The changes help “tell the story of Eisenhower with more dignity and power,” wrote Gehry in a letter to the commission.

Ricky Carioti / THE WASHINGTON POST

Frank Gehry is an "architect of flamboyant gestures," says critic Philip Kennicott, who argues that this contrast with Eisenhower's simplicity and humility is the right combination for a winning design.

Matt Rourke / AP

Frank Gehry explains the final design concept for the National Eisenhower Memorial to the Commission of Fine Arts.

Courtesy of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1954, above, was in his first term. In Gehry's memorial, bas-reliefs would represent Eisenhower's success as a military leader and as president, and a statue of the young Eisenhower would be placed so as to appear that the figure was reading the events of his life to come.

AP / AP

This photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower and friends camping along the Smoky Hill River in 1904 was one of Frank Gehry's inspirations for his memorial designs.

Courtesy Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene, Kan.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is shown in March 1944, when he was commander of the invasion of Europe. In the memorial, Eisenhower the man of action would be complemented by a more contemplative figure, a reference to the dreaminess of youth and the traditionally feminine passivity of reading.

AP / AP

A summer view of the memorial from the National Air and Space Museum in the most updated rendering, dated July 2011.

Courtesy Eisenhower Memorial Commission

A view of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial looking northeast along Maryland Avenue through the memorial site.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

A winter view of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial from the National Air and Space Museum, from a design dated July 2011.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

A winter view of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial looking northeast along Maryland Avenue through the memorial site.

Courtesy of Gehry Partners

A working image for the tapestry component of the memorial design. The tapestry images would represent the landscape of President Eisenhower's home town, Abilene, Kan. The image of the Midwestern landscape is a metaphor for the United States as a whole, both as a geographic center, as well as a country evolving into the new "world" role.

Courtesy Eisenhower Memorial Commission

Daniel Feil, executive architect, and Carl Reddel, executive director of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, and other attendees watch the presentation of the final design concept for the National Eisenhower Memorial by architect Frank Gehry, center rear.

Courtesy of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission

Frank Gehry explains elements of the design to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii).

Courtesy of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission

Frank Gehry poses with Rocco C. Siciliano, chairman of the National Eisenhower Memorial.

Courtesy of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission

An aerial view of the original proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington is shown in this undated photograph provided on March 20, 2012. President Dwight Eisenhower's granddaughter and critics called on Tuesday for the proposed Washington memorial to be redesigned or scrapped, calling the one in the works excessive and unsuitable.

HANDOUT / REUTERS

Susan, left, and Anne Eisenhower, granddaughters of former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, confer during the March 20 oversight hearing on the proposed Eisenhower Memorial by the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands at the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The Eisenhower family does not like the proposed plan for the memorial by famed architect Frank Gehry.

Jahi Chikwendiu / WASHINGTON POST

Susan Eisenhower, in red jacket, listens as Anne Eisenhower, another granddaughter of former U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower, answers questions during the congressional hearing on the proposed Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial on March 20.

Jahi Chikwendiu / WASHINGTON POST

An overall view of the original proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington is shown in this undated photograph.

HANDOUT / REUTERS

A view of the original proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington is shown in this undated photograph. The frieze in the background shows Gen. Eisenhower with troops during World War II.

HANDOUT / REUTERS

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