Michael and I would like to thank you for this commendation. We thought it was our patriotic duty to enter this competition as well as compel our friends to do so in order to showcase many examples as possible to the Congress and the American people, what a noble and beautiful monument to one of America’s greatest sons should look like. When I first learned of this competition, I contacted Michael of Frank and Lohsen, our most recent Arthur Ross Award winner having received the Ross for their work in civic and public architecture. Their proposals for the WTC would have single handedly reignited classical architecture. We have worked together before and we had to again for this important dialogue with the American people.
The current favorite flavor for the Eisenhower memorial is a “theatre for the automobile” as described by its designer, whatever that means. It cant be a positive experience for a pedestrian visitor which this great capital has always embraced. It is in the tradition of the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, showcasing a sick man in a wheelchair on the ground. This is anti-heroic and honestly anti-democratic and for all eternity shows another great American in a manner he took great pains to conceal while alive. Yet the British honor this American hero in Grosvenor’s Square standing erect, on a mighty pedestal, with a striking cape no less, yet firmly holding a cane to clearly indicate his disability. Likewise on this same square, facing his Supreme Allied HQ on a high pedestal, fierce gaze with hands on hips stands General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the savior of Europe. It is a heroic work and clearly shows the steadfast determination that Eisenhower possessed which saved the world from destruction.
We must not allow the best works of American heroes to be only in foreign countries. We must not allow the diminishing of our heroes by putting them on the ground so we can sit in their laps. And we must not make any monument in this American capital city, which is supposed to honor excellence in humanity yet, design it for the automobile. We must build for the ages. We must build beautiful, ennobling and inspirational memorials and buildings to show what we mean and who we are. We are Americans and at this time more than ever, we must inspire our youth that America has produced great individuals that have made this world better, and among the greatest of these is Dwight David Eisenhower. His memorial should rise to the heights he took all of us.
Thank You.
- Rodney Cook
