World War I memorial won’t be finished in time for centennial

Arkansas native’s design scaled back following review process

WASHINGTON — The new national World War I memorial won’t be finished in time for the centennial of the armistice that ended the conflict, officials said last week.

The memorial won’t be as sweeping as originally envisioned, either, but the simpler design may cost less money and encounter less opposition, they added.

Fayetteville native Joseph Weishaar was selected as the designer after winning an international competition. Phoebe Lickwar, a professor at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture, is the project’s landscape architect. Sabin Howard, a New York City sculptor, will create the 65-foot-long bronze wall that will be a focal point of the project.

Edwin Fountain, vice chairman of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, said the goal is to break ground by Nov. 11, 2018, exactly 100 years after the fighting stopped.

But there are still hoops to jump through — and millions of dollars to raise — before construction can begin.

“This design has to be approved by four different agencies: three federal and one for the District of Columbia. And it has to go through a public historic preservation review process, and that, frankly, was something that we did not anticipate when we started this,” Fountain said.

Originally, officials had hoped to complete the project in time for the anniversary.

The United States entered the war in April 1917, enabling England, France and their allies to defeat the nations aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Millions of people died in the conflict, including 116,000 Americans.

The memorial, which will be built along a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue, is to be built at Pershing Park, a

In September, the Washington, D.C., State Historic Preservation Office determined that the existing park is “nationally significant” and qualifies for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

1.76-acre, trapezoid-shaped space near the White House.

Featuring a statue of the man who led the U.S. war effort, General of the Armies John Pershing, it has fallen into disrepair in recent years.

The original design, unveiled in January 2016, would have made dramatic changes to the park, which was designed by landscape architect Paul Friedberg and opened in 1981. But the plan has been scaled back due to opposition from historic preservationists.

In September, the Washington, D.C., State Historic Preservation Office determined that the existing park is “nationally significant” and qualifies for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The office’s 43-page report found that the park, in its current form, is “an exceptional example of a landscape design of the modern period and of an approach to the design of public space as an integral part of the revitalization of an urban neighborhood in decline.”

Friedberg, the report said, is “one of modern American landscape architecture’s most accomplished urban designers.”

Rather than fight, the memorial’s boosters have compromised.

The original design kept the statue but erased many of the other features of the park.

The updated plan eliminates an existing ice-skating rink and refreshment stand, replacing the vendor’s kiosk with a flag display. But most other features of the park will remain.

“I think we’ve got to the point where we’re preserving about 96 percent of the park,” Fountain said Thursday.

Weishaar, who had never visited the nation’s capital until he entered the contest, now lives there.

He spends about 80 percent of his time working on the memorial, not only reworking the design, but also promoting the project and helping with fundraising.

“The design continues to evolve,” he said. “Sometimes it’s really hard to see things that I love go by the wayside, but other things have gotten better and stronger.”

The project is slowly moving through the federal bureaucracy. The Commission on Fine Arts will review the proposal May 18. The National Capital Planning Commission will consider it on June 1.

Lickwar, who worked on the 9/11 memorial in New York City, said she’s glad she’s part of the World War I memorial effort.

“It’s very exciting and it’s a lot of responsibility,” she said. “It’s a big challenge, I think, to balance preservation and commemoration.”

Howard said his artwork will depict America’s involvement in the war from start to finish. “You want to show that war has a cost. You really want to show the pain and suffering, and you want to show the human emotion and the brotherhood of arms and the sense of humanity,” he said.

It may take as many as six years to complete the wall, he said.