Modern Memorials are Gardens

Memorials here in D.C. and elsewhere used to be about stonework, not plants.  No green interrupts the displays of granite that are our monuments to Lincoln or Jefferson. The Washington Monument is, of course, in the middle of a sea of grass but its form - SO phallic - focusses the eye on a stack of stone, to be seen from afar or ascended by elevator.  Then there was the Vietnam, that shocking black gash in the lawn, and the world of memorialization changed.

The wonderful memorial to FDR took the notion of the walking memorial even farther, using the popular garden concepts of multiple rooms and water features, and quickly became the favorite of many Washingtonians.  Former Attorney General Janet Reno, a sufferer of Parkinson's disease, famously visited the FDR for inspiration, and as readers of this site might remember, I visited the FDR immediately after Katrina and was moved by words of that great leader.

And here you see the latest representation of the "landscape memorial" trend, the proposed $100 million memorial to Martin Luther King along the Tidal Basin  and facing the Jefferson.  The winner of a worldwide design competition is this sculpture garden and grove of trees, including even more cherry trees and lots of new crape myrtles, a welcome addition of color long after the too-brief flowering of the cherries.

This beautiful and moving design stands in stark contrast to the recently completed World War II Memorial, which in my humble opinion is all stone and bombast, an empty display of trite symbolism.  Eagles, wreaths, columns, arches, stars - they're all there.  This design of another era pleased almost no one except the WWII vets themselves, very few of whom are still living but who had enough political clout to have their taste enshrined for eternity. Then there's the fact that it glorifies war, but don't get me started.  Let's hope that the beauty and power of the King Memorial will convince decision-makers that this gardenesque, contemplative, walking experience of memorials is far more successful and more likely to be loved for generations.

Comments

[Tracy]

I stumbled across your blog and just wanted to make a comment on the WWII memorial.

I saw it for the first time while visiting DC in August 2004. I believe it had just opened a few weeks before then.

I found the expanses of water quite soothing and contemplative. And I thought the design took advantage of the monument's location.

While I will agree that incorporating "green" into memorials and monuments is a good idea, I think in this case it would have failed. I'm a gardener myself, and I don't feel as though trees and shrubs have any place in a war memorial. War is cold, dark, desperate. The WWII memorial and the other war memorials in DC accurately convey that sense.

[Takoma Gardener]

Thanks for the input and turning this into a conversation. Well put, too!