The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial, on July 27, 1995, the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the war. The memorial commemorates the more than 1.5 million Americans serving in the Korean War, including the 54,246 U.S. military personnel and 58,000 South Korean military personnel who died.
The memorial consists of nineteen free-standing stainless steel figures, a circular reflecting pool, and a mural wall. Each of the larger than life free-standing stainless steel figures, designed by Frank Chalfant Gaylord II, stand between 7-feet, 3-inches and 7-feet, 6-inches tall. The figures, including 14 Army soldiers, 3 Marines, 1 Navy medic, and 1 Air Force forward, are dressed in full combat gear, and dispersed among strips of granite and juniper bushes. At the apex of the field is the circular 30-foot diameter Pool of Remembrance, whose reflection shows 38 soldiers, representing the 38th parallel. To the south of the field, is a 164-foot long wall, designed by Louis Nelson, ranging in height from 4 1/2-feet and 11-feet. It is made of more than 100 tons of highly polished Academy Black granite and sandblasted with more than 2,500 photographic, archival images representing the land, sea and air troops who supported those who fought in the war are sandblasted onto the wall. To the north of the field is the United Nations Wall, a low wall listing the 22 members of the United Nations that contributed troops or medical support.
The idea for the monument originated with a group of Korean War veterans, including members of the 25th Infantry, who founded the Korean War Veterans Association in 1985. On Oct. 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan approved a resolution authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, American Battle Monuments Commission to erect a Korean War memorial on the mall and allocated $1 million in seed money. An initial design contest was won in 1989 by team from the Pennsylanvia State College School of Architecture. After they withdrew their design, Architects Cooper-Lecky then took over and supervised the design and construction of the memorial.
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The Three Soldiers statue, designed by Frederick Hart, was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in a grove of trees near the west entrance to The Wall on Veterans Day, November 11, 1984.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, set in the 42-acre Constitution Gardens, is a national war memorial honoring the members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War and who died in service or are still unaccounted for, consisting of three separate parts: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Three Soldiers statue, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial. The idea for the monument originated with Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran, who organized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., a nonprofit organization formed April 27, 1979, and Congress authorized the site on July 1, 1980. Maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, the memorial receives around 3 million visitors each year.
The Memorial Wall, designed by 21-year-old undergraduate student, Maya Ying Lin, the winner of a 1,421-entry 1981 public design competition, was dedicated on November 13, 1982. It consists of two black granite walls, 246 feet-9 inches long, sunk into the ground at a 125-degree angle, meeting at an angle of 125° 12' where they stand 10.1 feet tall and tapering off to a height of eight inches at their extremities. The 58,159 etched names etched represent the serviceman who were either KIA (Killed In Action) or remained classified MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed. There is a pathway along the base of the Wall, where visitors may walk, make a pencil rubbing of a particular name, or leave sentimental items.
Negative reactions to Lin's initial design were so strong that several Congressmen protested, and Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt refused to issue a building permit. As a compromise to those who wanted a more traditional approach, Frederick Hart, who placed third in the original design competition, was commissioned to augment the memorial with Three Soldiers, also known as The Three Servicemen. The three slightly larger than life bronze figures, of purposely identifiable ethnicities but unidentifiable service branch, stand approximately 8-feet tall. The lead soldier was modeled after a 21-year-old Marine who was stationed in the Washington, D.C. area in 1983. The soldier carrying the machine gun on his shoulder was modeled after a Cuban-American, and the African-American is a composite of several young men who the sculptor used as models. Lin protested at the proposed adulteration of her design, which resulting in its disconnected setting, even though the statue and wall appear to interact with each other--the soldiers look off in tribute to the distant names of their fallen comrades.
Further lobbying led to the Vietnam Women's Memorial, which was dedicated on Veteran's Day, 1993, just a short distance south of the wall. Glenna Goodacre's sculptural group commemorates the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War, most of whom were nurses.
In 2007, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was ranked #10 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
National Register #01000285 (2001)
Tags: District of Columbia Memorial National Memorial NPS National Mall Memorial Park National Mall and Memorial Park DC war memorial Washington DC DCist The Three Soldiers three soldiers vietnam war memorial vietnam war Frederick Hart vietnam veterans memorial U.S. National Park Service constitution gardens statue sculpture landmark three servicemen the three servicemen Vietnam AIA150 NMEM U.S. National Memorials National Park Service National Register of Historic Places vietnam memorial National Mall & Memorial Parks NRHP U.S. National Register of Historic Places
A view of the Washington Monument from the World War II Memorial.
The Washington Monument, a large white-colored obelisk at the west end of the National Mall, is constructed of marble, granite and sandstone and was built as a memorial for George Washington. Designed by Robert Mills, construction began in 1848, but not completed until 1884, 30 years after Mill's death, resulting from lack of funding and the Civil War. A difference in shading (visible at 150 feet) delineates the two phases of construction. Its cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884, and the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885. It officially opened to the public on October 9, 1888. At the time of its completion it became the world's tallest structure at 555 ft 51/8 in, a title it inherited from the Cologne Cathedral and held until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was finished in Paris. It is still the tallest structure in DC and due to a 1910 law restricting new building's height from being no more than 20 feet greater than the width of the street they're on, probably always will be.
Despite momentum for an appropriate memorial in the new capital following Washington's death, progress was finally made in 1833--the centennial of his birth. The Washington Monument Society began collecting donations and announced a design competition in 1836. Mills, who had designed the Washington Monument in Baltimore, was selected with a design that called for a 600-foot obelisk, topped by Washington in a chariot, and surrounded with a circular colonnade, but an exorbitant price tag of $1M.
In 1849, after 4 years of non construction, to combat escalating costs after 4 years the Society encouraged states and territories to donate memorial stones, which came pouring in from all sorts of organizations, businesses and foreign nations, often bearing inscriptions with no relevance to Washington. After the anti-Catholic, nativist Know-Nothing's stole a block donated by Pope Pius IX and took control of the Society in an election many claimed to be fraudulent, Congress rescinded the $200k contribution they had promised. The Know-Nothing's eventually ceded control in 1858.
It wasn't until after the Civil War, in 1876, that the Congress appropriated another $200k to complete the monument. After renewed conversation around design, the Society abandoned Mills' colonnade and altered the obelisk to conform to Egyptian proportions. Construction resumed in 1879 under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lincoln Casey and was completed within 4 years.
In 2007, The Washington Monument was ranked #12 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, set in the 42-acre Constitution Gardens, is a national war memorial honoring the members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War and who died in service or are still unaccounted for, consisting of three separate parts: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Three Soldiers statue, andthe Vietnam Women's Memorial. The idea for the monument originated with Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran, who organized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., a nonprofit organization formed April 27, 1979, and Congress authorized the site on July 1, 1980. Maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, the memorial receives around 3 million visitors each year.
The Memorial Wall, designed by 21-year-old undergraduate student, Maya Ying Lin, the winner of a 1,421-entry 1981 public design competition, was dedicated on November 13, 1982. It consists of two black granite walls, 246 feet-9 inches long, sunk into the ground at a 125-degree angle. One wall points towards the Washington Monument, the other towards the Lincoln Memorial, meeting at an angle of 125° 12′ where they stand 10.1 feet tall and tapering off to a height of eight inches at their extremities. There is a pathway along the base of the Wall, where visitors may walk, make a pencil rubbing of a particular name, or leave sentimental items.
The granite, from Bangalore, Karnataka, India, was chosen for its reflective quality, allowing visitors to see their reflection simultaneously with the engraved names, symbolically linking the past and present. The names, set in Optima typeface and etched using a photoemulsion and sandblasting process developed at GlassCraft, represent the serviceman who were either KIA (Killed In Action) or remained classified MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed. Each wall has 72 panels, 70 of which carry the inscriptions, listed in chronological order, starting at the apex on panel 1E in 1959 and moving day by day to the end of the western wall at panel 70W to the end of the eastern wall at panel 70E, which ends on May 25, 1968, starting again at panel 70W at the end of the western wall which completes the list for May 25, 1968, and returning to the apex at panel 1W in 1975. The wall listed 58,159 names when it was completed in 1993; as of May 5, 2007, when another name was added, there are 58,256 names. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing, denoted with a cross; the confirmed dead are marked with a diamond. If the missing return alive, the cross is to be circumscribed by a circle, (although this has never occurred as of January 2007); if their death is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over the cross.
Negative reactions to Maya Lin's initial design were so strong that several Congressmen protested, and Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt refused to issue a building permit. As a compromise to those who wanted a more traditional approach, Frederick Hart, who placed third in the original design competition, was commissioned to augment the memorial. Hart's Three Soldiers, also known as The Three Servicemen, was unveiled on Veterans Day, 1984 and depicts three young men purposely identifiable as Caucasian, African American and Hispanic. Lin protested at the proposed adulteration of her design, which resulting in its disconnected setting, even though the statue and wall appear to interact with each other--the soldiers look off in tribute to the distant names of their fallen comrades.
Further lobbying led to the Vietnam Women's Memorial, which was dedicated on Veteran's Day, 1993, just a short distance south of the wall. Glenna Goodacre's sculptural group commemorates the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War, most of whom were nurses.
In 2007, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was ranked #10 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
National Register #01000285 (2001)
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