Eisenhower Memorial Commission - Where is the Memorial Today

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Where is the Memorial Today?

Right now there is no national memorial to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but we’re making progress on creating it in our nation’s capital. Here’s the current status:

After considerable analysis of numerous potential sites for the memorial, the Commission identified its preferred site located across the street from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The four-acre land parcel is on Independence Avenue between Fourth and Sixth Streets, SW. Over a three-year period site approval was sought from the U.S. Congress, various government agencies, and advisory organizations before final site approval was granted on September 21, 2006.
CLICK HERE FOR SITE DETAILS AND MAPS

The Commission has resolved that the National Eisenhower Memorial will include two elements: a physical memorial and a living memorial.

Soon the Commission will consider suggested design concepts for the physical memorial. Design concepts for the living memorial will also be under consideration. These efforts will follow a parallel timeline.

Since establishing this website three years year ago, the Commission has sought and encouraged public participation in every aspect of the effort to create a national memorial in Washington in remembrance of Dwight Eisenhower. Please join us in this important work by giving us your thoughts throughout the months ahead.

What do you mean when you say the National Eisenhower Memorial will have both a physical and living element?

Most of the presidential memorials we know best, such as the Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson memorials, are physical monuments or statues within monuments. Their entire presence consists of a physical structure as a permanent remembrance of the president they represent.

Some official presidential memorials have no physical presence. An example of a presidential living memorial is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Located in Washington, DC, the Wilson Center has no dominant physical public presence, but operates from leased space to unite the world of ideas to the world of policy by supporting pre-eminent scholarship linked to issues of contemporary importance. In this way the living memorial perpetuates President Wilson’s legacy of scholarship linked closely to international relations.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is an example of an official presidential memorial that has both a physical element, a striking building in Washington, DC, and a living element, an ongoing series of live theatrical performances, presented in the name of a president who died in service to the nation.

When the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission resolved that the memorial should combine physical and living elements, it did not specify how these elements would be combined. Perhaps a physical structure could house an organization or a monument could be erected with an active organization operating elsewhere. In either case, there will be a physical structure and programs in furtherance of President Eisenhower’s lifetime legacy of public service. The actual design questions remain open to those who will offer concepts.

In every step of the design process for both the physical and living memorial elements, we invite everyone interested in the subjects to give us their ideas, comments, and suggestions.

Who Authorized the Commission to Plan a National Memorial to President Eisenhower?

The Unites States Congress created the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission and charged us to “… consider and formulate plans for such a permanent memorial to Dwight D. Eisenhower, including its nature, design, construction, and location.” (Public Law No. 106-79)
Click here for more on our enabling legislation.