Memorial to FDR Hits No. 1 By Linda Wheeler Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 2, 1998; Page D01

Architect Lawrence Halprin, who designed the Roosevelt Memorial, is delighted.

"I hoped it would happen," he said. "It is part of the interaction I wanted."

Today, the memorial is one year old. Since President Clinton dedicated it last year, more than 3 million visitors have strolled through its park-like setting – located in West Potomac Park between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials – making the memorial to the 32nd president the most popular tourist site in the nation's capital.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial had about 1.7 million visitors during the same 12-month period, according to National Park Service spokesman Earle Kittleman. The Lincoln Memorial drew 1.5 million.

Tour buses jam the Roosevelt Memorial's entrance road day and night as guides, carrying open umbrellas to help visitors identify them, lead groups of schoolchildren and camera-toting adults through 7 1/2 acres of statues, quotation-engraved granite walls and waterfalls.

By day, the memorial is washed in bright light and vies for attention with the nearby Tidal Basin and cherry trees.

At night, carefully designed lighting transforms it into a private, romantic garden of light and shadows. The basin and surrounding parkland are lost in darkness while the waterfalls are dramatically backlit and the statues are bathed in pools of gentle light.

Beverly and Irwin Stern, of Long Island, N.Y., held hands one evening this week as they wandered through the memorial for the fourth time since it opened.

At night, "the memorial has a totally different feeling," said Beverly Stern, a retired history teacher. "It's more intimate, more emotional."

Ashley Jones and Tim Stelloh, both of Vienna, often come at night – to see the waterfalls. On their 10th visit, the teenagers held hands and whispered as they stood before the mesmerizing sheets of water.

"It's, like, wow," Stelloh said. "It's really nice at night. I just love it."

Halprin intended "wow" to be every visitor's first impression. Working with his assistant, Patrick Quigley, he spent more than two years testing lights on sculptures and trees in San Francisco parks. They went to artists' studios to try the lighting on unfinished works, then took two months to fine-tune everything before the dedication.

The architect was concerned the lights would change the color of the foliage or create harsh angles on the statues. He wanted the fixtures to be unobtrusive during the day but produce museum-quality lighting at night.

"We look at this like designing light for a museum, the interior of a museum," he said. "The memorial has the same elements, but we had no place to hang the lights."

Other than a few narrow, black poles, very little of the lighting system is obvious during the day.

Although the pathways connecting the four "rooms" of the memorial are dimly lighted at night, initial concerns about purse snatchers or muggers proved unfounded, said U.S. Park Police spokesman Joe Cox.

"Crime just hasn't happened there," he said. "The worst problem we have handled is vendors selling without a permit."

Other worries have faded as well.

The design for the memorial was debated for 30 years, and two winning proposals were later rejected. In 1974, Halprin won the third design contest, but he had to wait more than 20 years to build the memorial.

Finally, as the memorial approached completion, disabled people questioned why Roosevelt was not depicted in a wheelchair. Shortly before the dedication, with protesters threatening to disrupt the ceremony, President Clinton defused the controversy by promising that another statue would be added – one that showed Roosevelt in the wheelchair he used after contracting polio as an adult.

Congress passed legislation to pay for the additional sculpture, and a committee that included Halprin began planning the new artwork. Committee Chairman Holly A. Robinson said in a recent statement that a design recommendation will be made this month.

Halprin calls the new work "an enhancement" and said it will be placed at the entrance to the memorial.

Another controversy was settled shortly after the memorial opened. Although Halprin wanted it to be interactive, the Park Service decided that visitors – especially children and dogs – should not be allowed to wade, bathe or swim in the pools. The architect agreed that turning it into a beach scene went too far.

But Halprin said he has had trouble letting go of his creation.

"I feel like an empty nester," he said. He, too, has become a frequent tourist at the memorial, sometimes wandering unnoticed through the crowds.

"When people tell me they love the memorial," he said, "I always have one thing to tell them: You really ought to see it at night."