Monument neglects accomplishments as US president and second world war commander, says granddaugther
The family of Dwight D Eisenhower have formally objected to the design of a memorial, saying architect Frank Gehry overemphasises his humble Kansas roots and neglects his accomplishments as a second world war commander and later president of the US.
Gehry has proposed a memorial park in Washington framed by large metal tapestries with images of Eisenhower's boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas.
In the park, a statue of "Ike" as a boy appears to marvel at what would become of his life: leading Allied forces to victory in Europe, and entering the White House. Additional sculpture elements go on to depict Eisenhower as general and president. Gehry's statue echoes Eisenhower's speech when he returned to Kansas after the war and spoke of a "barefoot boy" who achieved fame in Europe. He came home, he proclaimed, "to say the proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene".
Anne Eisenhower, one of his granddaughters, has sent a formal objection to the monument overseer, the National Capital Planning Commission, yesterday on the family's behalf objecting to the architect's vision.
"What one has to say is, he has missed the message here," she said. "The mandate is to honour Eisenhower, and that is not being done in this current design. Or … it is being done in such a small scale in relation to the memorial that it is dwarfed."
The commission director, Marcel Acosta, said in a statement the panel "appreciates the comments provided by the Eisenhower family".
Susan Eisenhower, another granddaughter, said "Ike" is simply the wrong figure to memorialise with an avant-garde approach. He was a traditionalist, bewildered by modern art, she said.
The Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which hired Gehry, said they plan to seek final approval of the design in March and hope to break ground this year.Images of Eisenhower as a general addressing troops before D-Day, the 1944 US invasion of Europe, and as president studying the globe would be represented in stone in "heroic scale", said Daniel Feil, the project's executive architect. With all the attention on Gehry's tapestries, some failed to see other aspects of the memorial, he said.
Feil said he does not expect to make any major changes to Gehry's design.