Realization of a Gehry Concept

Frank Gehry’s design for the Eisenhower Memorial in D.C. is scheduled to be ready for construction procurement by May 2012. As it wends its way through the approval process, much criticism and praise have been laid out for the column-supported outdoor tapestry composition, which Gehry says he conceptualized by watching the site from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum across Independence Avenue.

It struck him that the odd little patch fronting the massive Department of Education headquarters building was a theater for passing cars. Mr. Gehry’s thinking has evolved from this “stagecraft concept” to one of using the tapestries to create an urban park setting for the memorial itself. He envisioned Raphael-like art, albeit exposed to the elements.

Little has been said about the technological nuance of accomplishing something so seemingly ephemeral yet meant to stand the test of time. Here, in an interview with Inform, Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Executive Architect Daniel Feil, FAIA (recipient of the 2012 AIA Jefferson Award) explains the ongoing work of realizing imaginative genius.

Inform: Mr. Feil, please explain the nuances of this outdoor tapestry.

Feil: I can only speak in general terms because we’re still in the procurement process, so nothing is finalized, and we want to maintain a competitive situation.

The memorial design presentation to the Eisenhower Memorial Commission in July 2011 included this Gehry Partners LLC model, here looking east down Independence Avenue. All photos courtesy of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission.

For a tapestry as an outdoor element, Gehry initially thought it would be stainless steel wire woven on a Jacquard loom. We have worked with many weavers to get information and with two in particular to develop mockups. Actually, it was a challenge simply to get people to want to string their looms with wire, versus thread.

A much greater challenge was to create contrast—which is essential when you’re trying to display a graphic image—while having some transparency. Typically a graphic image requires different shades. The more contrast you have, the more you can open up the weave. Opening the weave was essential to achieving some level of transparency, which was required so that views from and of the Department of Education Building would not be blocked. And that’s what both of these weaving companies were trying to do.

At the outset, Gehry wanted the images [of the Midwest plains where Eisenhower grew up] to be in black and white, as were most photographs from the first half of the 20th century. So he started with stainless steel and then added black stainless steel trying for better contrast. The weaving teams also tried adding black and white PTFE [the material brand named by DuPont as Teflon®]. Black stainless steel got taken out of the equation because it didn’t have color longevity during materials testing.

One of the Jacquard pieces was exquisite artistically—a requirement from the Commission of Fine Arts—but it was quite opaque, so it didn’t really do all that we needed it to. The other Jacquard weave had some openness and was also very artistic. Then there was a third method that was used to produce an alternate weave. It was extremely artistic and also very open. It almost read as a theatrical scrim. It had an image on it but you could see through it. It was able to enclose space but not hide anything. People weren’t going to believe the effects of these works until they could see them, which is why we hung mockups in front of the Department of Education building.

That third idea came from an individual who is an architect by training as well as an artist and industrial engineer. His methodology seems promising because it would only use braided stainless steel wire. He proposed one thickness of wire that runs vertically a half inch on center and horizontally one foot on center. Think of that as the “metallic canvas.” He then laid down braided wire of four different thicknesses to develop an image. He studied the patterning and how the sun hits it, which is very important. He also studied Albrecht Dürer’s etchings to get a sense of patterning. And only working with stainless steel wire, he was able to get a very graphic image when the sun is behind it. When the sun is on it, it shimmers, which is also the effect when it is lit at night.

He also came up with a way of connecting the wire using electric resistance welding, which leaves no discernable welding marks. It also means you don’t have to precisely place the weld head where the overlap is. The electricity delivers heat to where the resistance is, which is where the wires overlap.

Inform: The site runs roughly east/west. You said that the light would react differently as the sun passes over. What is the orientation of the tapestries?

Feil: There are three pieces of tapestry. One faces north/south, running east/west. It is parallel to but 72 feet away from the Department of Education building. The two smaller tapestries, one on each side of the site, face east and west and run north and south. All three depict the Midwest plains in the spring, with Abilene [Eisenhower’s hometown] featured in it. The tapestries are all going to get sun on them at different times in different ways. At night they will all be lighted evenly, which is why I said the third proposal would shimmer consistently. That said, it is true that the site is inhospitable in many ways in terms of light. During the late fall and winter months, it’s almost half in shadow throughout the day.

The model of the memorial looking west along Independence Avenue, which Gehry presented to the Memorial Commission in July 2011.

Inform: Could you explain briefly the memorial design approval process?

Feil: We are covered by the Commemorative Works Act, which prescribes that we have a sponsor to go forward, either the General Services Administration or the National Park Service. Since the Park Service is going to operate the memorial, they are our sponsor.

The Commemorative Works Act requires a memorial such as this to be involved with three entities. The first is the National Capital Memorial Advisory Committee. Think of them as a kind of gatekeeper. They don’t approve a memorial design, but they must agree that the design is ready to be reviewed by the Commission of Fine Arts [CFA] and the National Capital Planning Commission [NCPC] for design approvals.

Design approvals come from NCPC and CFA at different stages. Their stages of design approval don’t necessarily align, so you might go to CFA for design concept approval at a different time as you do for NCPC preliminary design approval. But these approvals might not align with the stages of GSA’s design documentation process either. And this agency review process is separate and apart from going to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commissioners and the Eisenhower family themselves.

David Eisenhower, left, and Frank Gehry, center, discuss the memorial design in July 2011. Dan Feil stands to the far right.

Inform: Philip Kennicott wrote in The Washington Post that two of President Eisenhower’s granddaughters wanted a pause in the approval process. How is the family accepting the Gehry memorial concept?

Feil: I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the great architects of our time. And I can tell you that you will encounter challenges with everyone, even the best of architects. Yes [granddaughters] Ann and Susan have issues and wanted a pause. All the same, [grandson] David Eisenhower has been a memorial commissioner from the start. He endorsed the selection of Gehry, he endorsed the design concept, and, as recently as July 2011, he endorsed the design development.

Inform: When you were appointed executive architect for the commission more than five years ago, the Eisenhower Memorial Commission had the ambitious goal of securing design approval by May 2012, a process that typically takes a decade or more. Are you still on track?

Feil: That is our goal.