National Press Club to Host "NEWSMAKER" Event with Roger K. Lewis and Milton W. Grenfell

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Sep 11, 2012, 11:29 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Adding a new, congressionally authorized memorial to a city filled with them inevitably provokes controversy about design. And there is plenty of controversy over the design of the proposed memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied commander in Europe during World War II and 34th president of the United States. The memorial is to be built south of the National Mall on four acres between Independence Avenue and the U.S. Department of Education. The memorial site also will function as an urban park.

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Architects Milton W. Grenfell, of Grenfell Architecture PLC and vice president of the National Civic Art Society, and Roger K. Lewis, Washington Post columnist and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, will comment and answer questions about the controversial design.

Will the design appropriately commemorate Eisenhower the general and president, or become instead a monument to Frank Gehry, famous architect and designer of spectacular works cast in the so-called deconstructionist style? Does Gehry's intention "to bring an image of Middle America into DC" make sense? His design would depict Eisenhower as a boy along with the Kansas landscape where he grew up. One Washington Post writer says the design has "re-gendered" and given new life and vitality to the vocabulary of memorialization. But critics see it differently. Some assert that the proposed concept disregards timeless attributes of aesthetic composition that engender design excellence, regardless of style. Others point to flawed urban design. The Eisenhower family, as well as concerned observers in the nation's capital and elsewhere, have expressed great dissatisfaction with Gehry's concept.

TOPIC: "Who Likes Ike's Memorial"
DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 18
TIME: 10 a.m.
ROOM: Zenger Room

SOURCE National Press Club