Eisenhowers ask to delay DC memorial

WASHINGTON — President Dwight D. Eisenhower's family wants a memorial in the nation's capital redesigned, saying the current plans overemphasize his humble Kansas roots and neglect his accomplishments in World War II and the White House.

Architect Frank Gehry has proposed a memorial park framed by large metal tapestries with images of Eisenhower's boyhood home in Abilene, Kan. In the park, a statue of "Ike" as a boy would seem to marvel at what would become of his life, leading the Allied forces, integrating schools and the military, and creating NASA and interstate highways. Smaller sculptures would depict Eisenhower as general and president.

Gehry's idea echoed Eisenhower's speech when he returned to Kansas and spoke of a "barefoot boy" who achieved fame in Europe. He came home "to say the proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene."

Anne Eisenhower, one of the president's granddaughters, sent a formal objection to National Capital Planning Commission on Tuesday on behalf of the family.

"What one has to say is he's missed the message here," she told The Associated Press. "The mandate is to honor Eisenhower, and that is not being done in this current design. Or, shall we say, it is being done in such a small scale in relation to the memorial that it is dwarfed."

A spokesman for the National Capital Planning Commission didn't immediately respond. The Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which hired Gehry and planned to seek final approval of the design in March, didn't immediately comment on the family's objections.

Gehry has said he wants to make sure the Eisenhower family approves the design, but he has dismissed the idea of using a traditional statue, saying all the great sculptors are long gone.

Gehry's design follows the trend of other memorials honoring President Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II veterans and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Those memorials are more than statues and engage visitors.

Susan Eisenhower, another granddaughter, said "Ike" is simply the wrong figure to memorialize with an avant-garde approach. He was a traditionalist and bewildered by modern art, she said.

In a 1962 speech at the dedication of his presidential library, Eisenhower spoke of modern art as "a piece of canvas that looks like a broken down tin lizzie (Model T Ford), loaded with paint, has been driven over it."

"Just about everybody on the mall had humble origins," she said. "But you don't get to the mall because you had humble origins. You get to the mall because you did something for which the nation is grateful."

Beyond Gehry's images, the family is worried about the symbolism of tapestries towering eight stories high. Something smaller would make more sense, Susan Eisenhower said.

The memorial also would have its back to the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education Building, which sends the wrong message because Eisenhower and Johnson accomplished much together, the family wrote.

They also question the sustainability of the metal material and who would keep the woven metal clean of leaves and trash caught by the tapestry.

"Great monuments to our leaders are simple in design and made of durable stone for a reason," the family wrote.

The debate comes as families take a stronger role in national memorials. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children and late wife helped shape the new King Memorial.

In the 1990s, Roosevelt's family was divided over how a disabled president should be portrayed. A statue of Roosevelt in a wheelchair was eventually added.

The influence from families emerged with the Oklahoma City bombing memorial and more recently with the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, said Kirk Savage, author of "Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape."