Memorial to veterans takes shape
Cranes and orange barrels seem to be everywhere in Columbus these days, but there’s a particular concentration along Broad Street
just west of the Scioto River from Downtown.
With the National Veterans Memorial and Museum — on the former site of Veterans Memorial — about 15 months away from completion, the outline of its undulating concrete curves is nearly complete.
After that will come large glass panels and a translucent white finish for the building, followed by installation of the museum’s exhibits, dedicated to the stories of the country’s 22 million living veterans and the millions more who have died.
It’s not the only project that has the Scioto Peninsula area fenced off right now.
Directly across Broad Street, the area at the front of COSI also is also filled with construction equipment building an underground parking garage topped with a new park.
The nonprofit Columbus Downtown Development Corporation is overseeing both the $75 million Veterans Memorial and Museum project and the $37 million garage/park at COSI.
The plan is for these two projects to be joined starting next year with a large-scale mixed-use development just west of COSI. The development group is in the process of selecting its developer.
The new Veterans Memorial originally was to be called the Ohio Veterans Memorial. After seeing an opportunity to broaden its scope, backers have introduced legislation in Congress to formally designate it as the first national museum dedicated to all U.S. veterans.
The memorial and museum is a massive project, including 500 tons of structural steel, 28 million pounds of concrete and an outdoor Memorial Grove with a 325-foot-long water feature wall and 251 trees.
Up to 100 construction workers are on site in any given week, including more than two dozen military veterans who take a special pride in the project.
Guy Worley, president and CEO of the development group, said when Ohio Sen. Rob Portman toured the site several months ago, a few workers asked him if he was the architect.
Worley said early on, the team from Turner Construction was concerned about being able to execute the complicated, unusual design created by Allied Works Architecture. With the project more than halfway done, “Now, they have a sense of pride and accomplishment,” Worley said.
Tearing down the former Veterans Memorial, built in 1955, was initially greeted with resistance by some veterans who said there was no need to raze it. The late Sen. John Glenn lent his support to the new project early on, along with several other prominent Ohio veterans, including retired U.S. Air Force Col. Tom Moe.
Moe, who was director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services from 2011 to 2013, was visiting the construction site for the first time as a tour was conducted for media members. Moe called the design “brilliant” and said he will be addressing the national conventions of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion this summer to promote the National Veterans Memorial.
Asked whether questions have arisen about the memorial’s location in Columbus, Moe said the biggest single reason for putting it here is that the project is real and moving forward. Previous plans for memorials elsewhere, as in Chicago, never materialized.
But also, he said, Columbus is within an eight-hour drive of nearly half the U.S. population, and the memorial will become part of a cultural district that will appeal to both visitors and local residents.
Worley said in addition to leveraging Moe’s knowledge of veterans groups, the development group is working with Experience Columbus, the city’s convention bureau, to identify groups likely to bring events to a city that is home to the National Veterans Memorial.
“It will be part of a whole cultural district here on the riverfront,” Worley said, surveying a skyline view of Downtown.
He recalled that Glenn challenged those planning the new Veterans Memorial to “dream big,” Worley said.
“I see this and believe that we’re achieving that,” Worley said.