Architecturally, what do you think of the WW II Memorial?

[mot78]

[bryant69]

1. Looks pretty good to me

but I guess you might have to be there to get the full effect.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[AgadorSparticus]

2. i think it is a gaudy monstrosity. and i'm not happy about its location.

i see the nazi architectural references in the strong lines but i don't think they should have used it in a memorial setting. it was not only overkill, but i don't think we should memorialize nazi germany's characteristics or influence in any way.

i think the VN Veterans Memorial is more dignified and effective.

not that i'm against a WW2 Veteran's memorial. i think it is long overdue. i just don't like how they went about it. just my 2 cents. :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[mot78]

7. I like the Vietnam Memorial, but it's become copied a million times over

I'm glad the guy who designed this decided not to toe the Maya Lin line of required listing of names. Also I was against putting the memorial on the mall itself, but I'm not anymore, especially since the Rainbow Pool it surrounds was never a major component of the Mall to begin with.

[OneBlueSky]

32. exactly what I was thinking . . .

my dad was a WWII vet (Battle of the Bulge), and I have nothing but the greatest respect for what that generation did . . . I'm fine with them having a monument, but this thing would be more at home in Nazi Germany thant on the mall . . . all that supposed grandeur seems to glorify the war as much as it pays respect to those who fought it . . . I wish they'd done something more along the lines of the Vietnam memorial . . . low key, understated, meaningful . . . and the location couldn't be worse, breaking up that beautiful expanse . . .

[Eloriel]

3. From what I've seen of it on TV (not your photo)

I like it. I was initially against it -- both its size and the whole idea. But I feel differently about it today having seen it. I do think those who served deserve a memorial for that war. The size of it reminds me of what an incredibly massive, truly world-wide effort it was.

I regreat only that the emphasis on it this weekend pulls the attention away from the current war we're engaged in to a war that had actual justification.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. It looks like

the Germans won.

[diamond14]

19. absolutely...it's a major nazi-type Austrian-German architecture...

really, the WAR IS GREAT kind of display....


there is NOTHING to memorialize the humble soldiers who served....ONE star for every 100 DEAD PEOPLE is more than an insult...done in very soviet-communist style of suffering: STARS, one for each 100 nameless lives....

there is NO statement to the suffering of the families, the nation, or the pain to other nations, or even the ONLY TIMES (twice) atomic bombs were used to vaporize and burn hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians all in a second....

the whole design should have been thought through a little bit better...to reflect the WAR's place in our history, rather than just a glorious nazi monument to WAR WAR and let's have more WAR....the whole thing desecrates the Mall....especially since other war monumnets (Vietnam, Korea, and WWI-DC) must more poignantly reflect on the pain of war and the suffering of OUR soldiers....

you are absolutely right...this WWII monument looks like the Germans won...and place a giant statement of their conquest on OUR mall...

who designed this mess? does anyone know the background of the designer?

[diamond14]

21. Triumphal Arches are monuments to WAR (photos of arches)

there is nothing real architecturally unique about triumphal arches...all over Europe, at least since the Roman Empire...triumphal arches are monuments to WAR and the vicious triumph...nothing about the suffering of the soldiers or the innocents, mostly about EMPIRE....

IMO, the architectire was neither original or American in the design...


Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany



American WWII memorial to WAR



Augustan Arch in Aosta, Italy



American WWII Triumphal war arch

[2Design]

5. Really nice architecture

Not sure of the symbolism of it... But my guess is shows the Pacific an Atlantic wars with the water inbetween .....just a nice memorial....

All those stars......the names on the Vietnam memorial.....makes it really tough to take without a tear or tears

......if they had all the names on each of the stars.........that would personalize it more

[Piperay]

6. Too obtrusive

and too busy and the location is so wrong.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

8. I like it...its sensitive to context, but also a contribution....

...to classic monuments of DC. Its not overwhelming, but it has a central location in monumental schema of the Mall, as WWII was a central feature of US history.

[Spinzonner]

9. A little bit of Stonehenge on Steroids

[FloridaPat]

10. I got to see it a couple of weeks ago. I like it. A lot of my

relatives served in that war. One of my uncles died in Europe. It was very moving.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

11. Its interesting it isnt a 'building" in the conventional sense

..its more of an landscape feature.

After looking at the pix in the thread header i was suprised about those stars (where are they in the memorial) and the big wreaths in the "Altantic" and "Pacific" pavilions.

I guess each of those pylons in the semicircles stands for a state?

[Leilani]

12. Architecturally, it looks like a Neo-Classical Ode

to Nazi Germany.

Design wise, it is terrible, terrible, terrible!!!!

There is no theme, the elements do not make sense, it is gaudy...
& I could go on.

That said, the WWII vets deserved a memorial, just wish it had been better.

Also, the monstrosity was changed, due to much criticism, to not block the view of the mall.

[burrowowl]

13. The neo-classical

was popular everywhere in Europe and the US at the time and reflects the time. It should not have been done in a modern venacular. Granite and bronze are very standard monument materials. I glad at least some got to see their memorial before they died.
It is pretty chaste and clean. The pools were lowered 6' so as not to obstruct the sight line from the Washington to the Lincoln Memorials.

[RobinA]

14. Don't Like It

Don't like the location. I don't even like the idea. It seems banal to me when the real, living, WWII memorial is a free Europe. What is a bunch of granite and metal work when the positive results of that war exist in real life for all the world to see.

It's like building a Revolutionary War memorial in Washington when the whole damn town is a living memorial to that war.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Yuck.

Too busy. Too much color. Looks like it was designed by George Lucas for a Star Wars set (new trilogy, not old) Ugly. Shamefully ugly.

What are the blue rings on each of the columns? I can't make out what they are from the photo.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

25. Probably laurel wreaths.

This is a pretty typical motif in memorials like this.

[Catt03]

16. Too busy and gaudy but glad WWII vets and families

have something

I was against building it in the Mall but I have changed my mind. It means a lot to the vets and their families.

[baldguy]

17. Fascist Modernism. Cold. Oppressive. Superficial.

The vets deserved better.

[LuLu550]

18. Looks a bit like the stuff

Mussolini did in Italy...no disrespect intended.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

29. Oh, you mean like this?

The Casa Del Fascio, or House of the Fascists:

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Casa_del_Fascio.html

....or maybe not?

[Straight Shooter]

20. At first glance I like it, but I'd have to be there to get an impression

It's the feeling of a place that makes the difference. And I'm no student of architecture but it looks like something the old Greeks would do, an open arena type structure. Maybe the buildings representing Atlantic and Pacific shouldn't be so linear, some curves would be nice. :shrug:

[KittyWampus]

22. Unimaginative. Maudlin. Derivative.

I wouldn't have been adverse to a modern interpretation of an allegorical statue.

[Dont Hurt Me]

23. I like it

They did a nice job blending it in with the surroundings. I'm sure after the initial "my God they changed something" protest die down, it will be very popular. Look how the vietnam memorial was hated and how it is revered today.

[Spider Jerusalem]

24. Looks like a quarter-scale rendition of one of Albert Speer's designs.

And I'm not too keen on the location, either. Ruins the view from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

[kodi]

30. yeap, either national socialist or soviet architecture, with big tailfins

.

[kiahzero]

26. My first thought was

"That looks like it came out of Castle Wolfenstein."

[democracyindanger]

27. Reifenstahlicious.

[bikebloke]

28. I pedal by it every day, on the way to work.

From the beginning it has always been bland, uninspired and uninspiring. Except to those who pocketed a hefty chunk of change from it. The location also serves to block any massive demonstrations as there have been in the past.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

31. funny ,all these "Nazi" remarks...really ignorant, actually.

I think these remarks betray how ignorant people have become of architecture and their countrys own architectural history.

The neoclassical is pretty much been standard in the US for civic and monumental architecture, and not just in Washington. Heres the
War Memorial (WWI) from Indianapolis, at the head of a grand neoclassical mall



Or the Tennessee State Capital


We've been doing neoclassical way before Albert Speer. And Albert Speer was operating within a German tradition of neoclassical architecture as old as ours, one that predated the Nazis, and was co-opted by them, as they co-opted alot of things in German life.

[Norquist Nemesis]

33. I was impressed...

I just got back from Washington about a week ago. It was my first time there and we spent a week visiting numerous memorials, museums, and buildings.

My first impression that struck me about it though, was it reminded me of the memorial in Iraq where they pulled downed Saddam's statue. :shrug:

The most emotional monument (for me) was the Vietnam Memorial. It's true...so many names. That was the one that really brought me to tears. I wanted to just sit and cry in front of one slab where a birth certificate was laid. It was as powerful in emotion as the birth of my children.