Lincoln Memorial project begins
Work on visitor space, exhibit area to be completed by 2026
The National Park Service is set to announce Monday that the long-delayed project to build a large new visitor space underneath the Lincoln Memorial is finally getting underway.
The project, which was launched in 2016 with an $18.5 million donation by billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, has now grown to a nearly $69 million enterprise, with more funding from the National Park Foundation and other donors.
It is believed to be the biggest such undertaking at the building since the structure was dedicated in 1922, officials have said. The memorial turned 100 last year.
Much of the work will be done in the basement “undercroft” of the structure, where extensive new exhibit areas will be created.
Construction should begin next month, the Park Service said.
The project was initially expected to take four years. But the work proved more complex than anticipated, Jeff Reinbold, superintendent of the Park Service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks, said in an interview.
“We’re essentially building a modern glass structure inside this historic space,” he said. “And all of the challenges of how visitors would move throughout the space, interact with this historic space … took a little longer than we expected.”
“But in the end we’re really excited about the product,” he said.
The marble-columned edifice, which houses the 120-ton statue of a seated and contemplative Abraham Lincoln, is one of the most hallowed memorials in the country. It sits on a man-made eminence overlooking the Potomac River.
The project will create 15,000 square feet of exhibit space, the Park Service said. The current exhibit area is about 750 square feet.
The undercroft includes the huge grid of exposed concrete columns and arched supports that hold up the memorial.
Floor-to-ceiling glass walls will provide a view of some of the supports in the undercroft, and an immersive theater presentation will project images of historic events onto the foundations, the Park Service said.
Part of the undercroft roof will be removed so equipment can be lowered into the workspace by crane.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Will Shafroth, CEO of the park foundation, the Park Service’s fundraising partner, said in an interview. “I don’t think we expected it would take this long. There was some new information along the way and some new requirements.”
“In some ways it’s going to be a better outcome,” he said.
The Park Service added in a statement: “Multi-media presentations will highlight the construction history of the memorial and discuss how the Lincoln Memorial has become the nation’s foremost backdrop for civil rights demonstrations.”
The project will also include new restrooms, a larger bookstore and a refurbished elevator to the chamber level of the memorial.
The work is expected to be finished by 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
“It’s taken a while, but I think it will be worth the wait,” Rubenstein said in a statement.
“Having a state-of-the-art visitor center will enable the memorial’s 8 million annual visitors to better understand the greatness of Lincoln and the pivotal role he played in saving the union and freeing enslaved people.”
Access to the memorial, including the steps and chamber with the statue of Abraham Lincoln, will remain open to the public. The basement area exhibits, restrooms and elevator will close this spring, but temporary restrooms, a bookstore and a handicapped accessible lift will be available during the work.
The 38,000-ton Lincoln Memorial is built on fill dredged from the Potomac River. It is supported by the series of huge concrete pilings that were sunk through the fill down to bedrock.
Ground was broken for the memorial on Lincoln’s birthday — Feb. 12 — in 1914. The cornerstone was set a year later.
The memorial was dedicated in the presence of Lincoln’s 78-year-old son, Robert, on May 30, 1922.
It was modeled on the Parthenon, the Greek temple to the goddess Athena.
Hundreds of gatherings to protest, celebrate, pray, mourn and entertain have unfolded against the backdrop of the memorial. Fourth of July fireworks and formations of warplanes have appeared overhead.
The park foundation contributed more than $43 million to the project. More than $38 million has come from private donors like the John L. Nau III Foundation; the Rick L. and Vicki L. James Foundation; Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth C. Griffin; and the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation, the Park Service said.