A Raw Deal for FDR
CATTON, PIA
A Raw Deal for. FDR Washington's Latest, Unmonumental Memorial By Pia Catton After a half-century of planning, the memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt opened last week in Washington. Whether or...
...The design of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial brings together [Halprin's] Pia Catton is a reporter for The Weekly Standard...
...FDR himself did not want an immense memorial...
...Too bad they didn't erect a monument that said that...
...The outdoor gallery records the depressing aspects of FDR's presidency without so much as a hint of his cheerful personality or his optimism...
...And the 6,000 tons of reddish granite recall nothing short of a giant gravestone...
...He told Felix Frankfurter that if he was to receive a memorial after his death, he wanted a stone no bigger than his desk placed outside the National Archives...
...It is nearly impossible to feel intimidated or overwhelmed here...
...Yet there is little good cheer here...
...The rooms include bronze work and waterfalls representing the major events in that term...
...In the words of former senator Mark Hatfield, co-chairman of the FDR Memorial Commission, "We sought . . . for this memorial to embrace, not stand apart from, its visitors...
...desire to make environments through his art," his official biography reads, "emphasizing the beauty of the urban landscape and the participation and enjoyment of those who experience it...
...Inscriptions on the granite stones relay FDR's memorable quotes, and require no neck-craning or eye-squinting...
...At the bronze sculpture of four men in a Depression-era bread line, visitors stand in the line as well and have their picture taken, Disney-style...
...Forget lofty thoughts of heroism...
...As a result, visitors are irreverent...
...The large sculpture of FDR features a grim, sober look rather than his exuberant smile...
...The waterfalls give off low roars but end in shallow, still pools...
...But little by little memorial fever set in...
...The design literally puts FDR in the shadows of greatness...
...The memorial is as accessible and gentle as your grandmother's garden...
...all rumination here is anchored on a totally human plane...
...So much so that at the recent dedication, President Clinton, who wore FDR-style arm-braces for the day, was able to presume that "it is right that we go a little beyond his wishes...
...Halprin's purpose was not so much to memorialize Roosevelt as to make the memorial a fun public space...
...For many tasteful years, FDR's wishes were carried out...
...Children play and climb on the granite rocks inscribed with FDR's words, "I hate war...
...The statue of FDR himself is larger than life size, but not very imposing...
...But you cannot see the FDR memorial from any point around the Tidal Basin because it is totally obscured by trees...
...In this way, as in others, the monument misrepresents and diminishes the man...
...Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who won the commission for the project, chose to memorialize FDR with an outdoor museum...
...He did not even want a moderately sized memorial...
...The room representing Roosevelt's fourth term symbolizes war...
...Roosevelt's memorial is located almost equidistant from the monuments to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, and the Washington monument is visible wherever you stand...
...all the other statuary is at human scale...
...The Tidal Basin, where we honor our greatest national heroes, now includes a bleak and inappropriate tribute to the 32nd president—one that contradicts his personality, belittles his contribution to history, and ignores his own wishes...
...The quotes from FDR reflect the sorrow of war, rather than the pride of victory...
...Roosevelt comes off as a brooding pacifist, instead of the formidable military leader he eventually became...
...Hatfield and committee got what they wanted...
...Water tumbles over blocks of granite resembling postwar rubble and chaos...
...Whether or not FDR deserves a monument that cost as much as the New Deal is debatable...
...Why...
...This untraditional format consists of four "rooms," one for each presidential term...
...Because FDR was the "greatest president of this great American century...
...But we can be certain that no president, FDR included, deserves a memorial that mocks his legacy...
...Joggers tramp and pant directly through, not just around, the site...
Vol. 2 • May 1997 • No. 35
