After a rejection earlier in the year, Frank Gehry has gotten some good news: his revised design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, located in Washington, D.C., has received preliminary approval.
The National Capital Planning Commission voted 10-1 to approve the revision, according to Architecture Lab. The same commission rejected Gehry's original proposal months ago, citing concerns about the large metal tapestries proposed by the architect and how they would affect the view to and from Capitol Hill.
In September, Gehry unveiled the new design, with the metal tapestries removed along with other changes. After the approval, Gehry said in a statement: "I'm grateful to the National Capital Planning Commission for its decision, and for its cooperative engagement in resolving the issues."
According to the Los Angeles Times, members of the Eisenhower family have expressed strong disapproval of the design, even the revised version.
The memorial must go through other levels of approval before it is finalized, including funding approval from Congress; the estimated cost of construction is over $100 million.
The revised design addresses several concerns raised during the NCPC meeting earlier this year:
• The design revisions eliminate the East and West Tapestries, allowing the influence of the adjacent buildings to define and unify the site.
• The northern singular columns are set back more than 47 feet from the Independence Avenue Right-of-Way and are fully within the planes of the adjacent building facades.
• The revised design has widened the Maryland Avenue view corridor from 95 feet to 135 feet. This creates a more proportionally horizontal framing of the U.S. Capitol.
• Original concept included four columns that were within the 160-foot right of way. With the elimination of the side tapestries, the revised plan now includes only two columns within the southern edge of 160-foot right of way.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
And the world's tallest building is…
At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.
| Aug 11, 2010
Project is music to school's ears
Florida Gulf Coast University is building a $7.55 million Fine Arts Building on its campus near Ft. Myers, Fla. The 25,000-sf building—the first project in the school's plan for an entire music complex—will house the music program of the College of Arts and Sciences. The facility includes a 200-seat recital hall, rehearsal hall, music labs, studio rooms, and administration offices.
| Aug 11, 2010
Theater offers spectacular views inside and out
A 500-seat proscenium theater sits at the heart of the 35,000-sf Performing Arts Pavilion at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. The entertainment and cultural facility, designed by Stephen Dynia Architects, Jackson Hole, Wyo., also houses glass-walled rehearsal rooms that offer passersby views of the activity going on inside and multifunction lobby with views of Snow King Mountain.
| Aug 11, 2010
Design for Miami Art Museum triples gallery space
Herzog & de Meuron has completed design development for the Miami Art Museum’s new complex, which will anchor the city’s 29-acre Museum Park, overlooking Biscayne Bay. At 120,000 sf with 32,000 sf of gallery space, the three-story museum will be three times larger than the current facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Community college’s hillside learning center
The Earl E. and Dorothy J. Dellinger Learning Resource Center at Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands, Va., is the centerpiece of this mountainside school. Designed by Arlington, Va.-based The Lukmire Partnership, the 50,000-sf, two-story building connects the upper and lower campuses, which are separated by a 70-foot vertical grade change.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils ‘floating cube’ design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park in Dallas. The $185 million, 180,000-sf structure is 170 feet tall—equivalent to approximately 14 stories—and is conceived as a large...
| Aug 11, 2010
BIG beats out Foster and Hadid in design competition for Kazakhstan's National Library
Invited as one of five pre-selected architect-led teams that included Lord Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid, Copenhagen-based BIG was awarded first prize in an international design competition for the new National Library in Astana, Kazakhstan. The 33,000-square-meter facility will be organized as a “circular loop of knowledge” that allows for clear, intuitive orientation of the vast co...
| Aug 11, 2010
Broadway-style theater headed to Kentucky
One of Kentucky's largest performing arts venues should open in 2011—that's when construction is expected to wrap up on Eastern Kentucky University's Business & Technology Center for Performing Arts. The 93,000-sf Broadway-caliber theater will seat 2,000 audience members and have a 60×24-foot stage proscenium and a fly loft.
| Aug 11, 2010
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts opens
The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, a new multi-venue center for music, opera, theater, and dance, will open this month, completing the 25-year vision of the Dallas Arts District. Foster + Partners, Rem Koolhaas, Joshua Prince-Ramus, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill are among the architecture firms involved in the development, which includes four venues unified by a 10-acre park.
| Aug 11, 2010
TCF Bank Stadium first new football stadium to get LEED certification
The University of Minnesota has received LEED Silver certification for its 50,805-seat TCF Bank Stadium, making it the first new football stadium in the country to achieve LEED status. Designed by Populous, Kansas City, Mo., the facility features a stormwater management system that captures and stores rainwater in an underground filtering system, where it is harvested, filtered, and drained int...
