Work on World War I memorial goes on amid pandemic

WASHINGTON — Work at the World War I memorial continues, despite blistering heat, a pandemic and recent rioting just blocks away.

Visitors to Pershing Park have their temperatures checked when they enter the construction site, and they’re quizzed about their health. In addition to white hardhats and orange vests, they’re outfitted with purplish disposable gloves and masks.

A fence surrounds the 1.76-acre site on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House.

Officials broke ground on the $50 million project in December, although the real work didn’t begin until early January.

The lead memorial designer, Fayetteville native Joseph Weishaar, says the park is on track to open late in the year. The artwork at its heart will take a while longer.

In New Jersey, sculptor Sabin Howard is crafting the memorial’s centerpiece, a 58-foot-long bas-relief sculpture commemorating the conflict.

It’s nowhere near complete.

“The dedication in December will just be sort of a soft opening,” Weishaar said. “Sabin won’t finish the sculpture until about 2024.”

A crane will be needed to put it in place.

Once it’s delivered and installed, there’ll be a highprofile unveiling, Weishaar said.

“That will be the official dedication. Whoever’s president in 2024, that’s who will be here,” he said.

Victor McCoy, the project’s senior superintendent, has been doing construction for years. He helped build the World War II memorial as well.

“To me, it’s an honor to work on it. I used to be in the service. I’m a veteran. I didn’t finish my training. I got a medical [discharge]. So I’m looking at this as serving, doing my portion, doing memorials,” he said.

Sparked by the June 28, 1914, assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, World War I was a global conflagration, four years of bloodshed.

The United States, which entered the conflict in April 1917, helped the British Empire, France and other Allied Powers defeat the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

By the time the guns fell silent, on Nov. 11, 1918, millions had died, including more than 116,000 U.S. service members.

The fragile peace that followed was fleeting, with World War II commencing in 1939. Millions more would die.

While monuments to other 20th-century conflicts — Vietnam, Korea and World War II — are already in place, the U.S. capital, until now, hasn’t had a similar tribute for those who served in the Great War.

The last of the nation’s World War I veterans, Frank Buckles, died on Feb. 27, 2011, Weishaar’s 21st birthday.

In December 2014, Congress authorized a monument to honor those who fought in the Great War.

Weishaar, a graduate of the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture, has been focusing on the project since winning the World War I commission’s international design competition in January 2016.

He was just 25 years old at the time. He’s 30 now and lives in Washington.

It took more than three years of design and redesign to satisfy a variety of government entities.

Initially, Weishaar intended to make sweeping changes to Pershing Park, which honors Gen. John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western front.

The plans had to be scaled back, however, after protests from preservationists and a determination by the National Park Service the park was eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

After three years of hard work, the Commission of Fine Arts signed off on the project in September. The National Capital Planning Commission gave its blessing in October.

With work underway, Weishaar visits the site regularly.

Last week, construction crews unloaded the stainless steel pipes that will deliver water to the park’s new fountain.

Covid-19 hasn’t hobbled the project. In fact, it’s removed some traditional barriers.

For a while, noise ordinances were waived, McCoy said. Parking was easier to find. Construction would begin at 6 a.m.

With the neighboring Willard Intercontinental hotel shut down, there wasn’t anybody there to wake up, McCoy added.

“It was real easy for us to work,” he said.

Asked why it took so long to build a World War I memorial, Weishaar cited a couple of reasons.

For most of the century, war memorials were typically erected on a local level.

That changed after the creation of the Vietnam War Memorial.

“Chronologically, the memorials have been working in reverse order. They started in Vietnam, then Korea, then World War II and finally World War I,” Weishaar said.

The calendar also may have conspired against a World War I memorial, Weishaar suggested.

“The 25th anniversary was right in the middle of World War II. The 50th was in the middle of Vietnam, I think. The 75th was right at the start of Iraq [and] Desert Storm,” he said. “When the centennial came up, everybody said, ‘We have to do it. This is our shot.’”