A rendering of the planned National World War I Memorial in Washington's Pershing Park.The first phase of construction began December 12.
Construction Has Finally Begun On The National World War I Memorial In D.C.
By Jon Banister
via the BISNOW (Washington, DC) web site
For more than a century after World War I ended, Washington did not have a national monument to commemorate its combatants, but after years of slogging through complex approval processes and raising tens of millions of dollars, that is about to change.
The World War I Centennial Commission last week received building permits and celebrated the groundbreaking of the National World War I Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue, more than a decade after the effort to build it began.
The groundbreaking comes more than a century after the war ended with the Treaty of Versailles. The Centennial Commission was founded in 2013, and the following year, Congress authorized the construction of a memorial on Pershing Park, a 1.8-acre site just one block from the White House.
Construction was able to begin after the project reached a series of milestones in recent months, including design approvals from the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission in September and October, respectively, and the culmination of fundraising.
The Centennial Commission recently reached its goal of raising $40M for construction of the memorial, with donations this year including $1M from the National Football League, $1M from the Carnegie Foundation and $5M from the Lilly Endowment, Centennial Commission Vice Chairman Edwin Fountain tells Bisnow. He said the commission is continuing to fundraise for the dedication events and virtual elements of the memorial.
Read the entire article on the Bisnow web site.
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