LAWRENCE — Designing an inspirational national monument capturing the life and times of American presidential and military leader Dwight Eisenhower was complicated by a routine source of friction.
It is a family feud.
Carl Reddel, executive director of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, said during a program Thursday evening at the Dole Institute of Politics at The University of Kansas that the project had been delayed by dissent among Eisenhower grandchildren about the content of a memorial setting in stone and iron contributions of the Kansan to national security and liberty.
"It's about time that we do this," Reddel said. "It's truly an extraordinary story."
Reddel said conflict about architect Frank Gehry's concept shouldn’t derail the creation of a permanent expression of appreciation to the longtime resident of Abilene, leader of Allied troops in World War II and 34th president of the United States. He advanced the federal role in highways, space exploration, education and other areas. The memorial should include the full sweep of that life, he said.
"From the beginning of his wearing a uniform at West Point to the end of his life, the security of this country came first," he said. "He pursued that security first as a general and then as president."
"That single story is what makes this general, this president, truly exceptional. That is a single unitary fabric, holistic dimension, of what this man was about,” Reddel said. “To separate them is artificial and is a huge mistake."
Grandson David Eisenhower, while on the memorial commission, voted for Gehry's design. However, granddaughter Susan Eisenhower has disrupted the project by denouncing Gehry's vision that includes tall woven steel tapestries depicting scenes from Eisenhower's life and framed by stone columns. He also proposed installation of stone features fronted by bronze statutes of Eisenhower as soldier and president. The site is on four acres with a view of the U.S. Capitol and one block from the National Mall.
In a statement Thursday, a spokesman for Right by Ike: Project for a New Eisenhower Memorial, expressed disappointment with the "undemocratic selection process" undertaken by the memorial commission. The competition attracted 44 proposals from which the commission chose Gehry from among four finalists.
"That process has left us without alternatives to a controversial design that is stalled in the federal approval process and will cost at least twice what was planned," said Sam Roche, a lecturer at the University of Miami architecture school and activist in Right by Ike.
Reddel, who has been on a speaking tour of Kansas to promote the memorial, said that in hindsight he would have sought to make the process more inclusive because that might have moderated dissent.
Congress created the commission in 1999, and the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission agreed to place the memorial in front of the U.S. Department of Education near the U.S. Capitol.
The commission affirmed Gehry's proposal in 2010, but resignation from the commission of David Eisenhower in 2011 prompted a period of reappraisal.
At the urging of other Eisenhower grandchildren, Gehry altered portions of the project to include tall statues of Eisenhower. He has declined to remove grass and trees in the proposed landscape from the site or delete the metal tapestries. It is unclear at this stage when construction might begin on the memorial.
"He believes the tapestry is fundamental,” Reddel said. “He is committed to the landscape."