Vision
As part of America's commemoration of the centennial of World War I, the United States Congress has authorized an enhanced and expanded World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. The creation of a national World War I Memorial in the nation's capital is a daunting but exciting challenge. Sited at Pershing Park on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Memorial will honor the 4.7 million Americans who served in the war, including the 116,516 who died, and will be a fitting addition to the national memorials to the three other great wars of the 20th century, located nearby on the National Mall. At the same time, the Memorial – located on "America's Main Street," one block from the White House – will be at the confluence of vehicular and pedestrian circulation patterns, as well as commercial and institutional activities, and will continue to serve as a commemorative space, as the front door to adjacent uses, and as a park.
In its current configuration, Pershing Park is an urban open space that contains commemorative elements as a secondary feature. While the memorial to General Pershing is a contributing element within the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, the memorial function of Pershing Park as presently designed is diminished because the Pershing commemorative elements, including a 12-foot bronze statue of General Pershing and adjacent granite walls inscribed with maps and text, are located in a small corner of the site; are not well-integrated into the rest of the park; and do not focus on the service and sacrifice of American servicemen and women in the war.
At its inception in the early 1980s, the park was an enjoyable urban space designed by a notable landscape architect, M. Paul Friedberg. Today, however, enjoyment of the park has been compromised and the park now falls short of its original vision. The central feature of the park design – a large, sunken area containing an ornamental pool in the summer and an ice-skating rink in the winter – is no longer used or maintained for those purposes. As a result, the park landscape is dominated by a flat, concrete square in the center of the site, and by an abandoned concession gazebo, which detract from the site as both a park and a memorial. Equally problematic are the high earthen berms and parked vehicles surrounding much of the site, making it uninviting and even invisible to passersby, although the berms provide a sense of quiet containment.