America’s Centennial Commission has announced the winning design for a national memorial in Washington to US soldiers who fought in the First World War.
A Wall of Remembrance, featuring sculpted figures of civilians transformed into battered soldiers, leading one another into the fray, is at the centre of the landscaped monument.
The memorial, entitled ‘The Weight of Sacrifice‘, also includes quotations from soldiers and a free-standing sculpture, surrounded by trees and green spaces in Pershing Park, just a short distance from the White House.
The winning design is the work of 25-year-old Joe Weishaar, a trainee architect working in Chicago, and New York sculptor, Sabin Howard.
It was one of five finalists selected from more than 360 entries in a competition organised by the US World War I Centennial Commission.
Overview visual of ‘The Weight of Sacrifice’ in Pershing Park, Washington (Image: Joe Weishaar & Sabin Howard/US World War I Centennial Commission)
Commission Vice-Chair Edwin Fountain announced the winner at a Washington press conference on January 26th 2016.
In its verdict, the judging panel commented: “The Weight of Sacrifice comes closest to meeting all National World War I Memorial goals…. this design concept promises to remind and inspire visitors for generations to come about American involvement and sacrifice in World War I”.
‘The Weight of Sacrifice’ will stand in Washington DC as a tribute to 4.7 million Americans who served in the Great War after the US entered the conflict in 1917. Two million were deployed overseas.
116,516 US soldiers were killed – more than the combined totals for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the Centennial Commission explains.
But it points out that ‘alone among the four great wars of the 20th century’, there is no national memorial to World War l in the US capital.
An existing statue of General John Pershing, commander of US forces in WWI, will have an enhanced position overlooking the redesigned Pershing Park.
Up to $40 million will have to be raised from private donors to fund the new memorial. Its inauguration is planned for November 11th 2018, the centenary of the Armistice.
For more details, and information about America’s First World War commemorations, visit the US World War I Centennial Commission website.
Source: United States World War One Centennial Commission
Images courtesy of: Joe Weishaar & Sabin Howard/US World War I Centennial Commission
Posted by CN Editorial Team