We're at the base of Capitol Hill and we're looking at one of the memorials that people forget even exists in Washington. It's right on the mall, it's 250 feet long and yet in a way it's a kind of secret Memorial. The colossal size of the Grant Memorial is a reminder of how important Ulysses S Grant was considered in the United States for years and how in some ways has slipped which may explain the obscurity of this rather striking Memorial. The design of the Grant Memorial was a design competition that was held in 1902. The winner was a young sculptor from New York called Henry Merwin Shrady. He wasn't the famous artist, but he spent&nbsp;the rest of his life 20 years working on this enormous sculpture, in fact he died only two weeks before it was unveiled in 1922. By then just kind of sculpture had already become slightly old-fashioned, which is perhaps why the Grant Memorial is not particularly well known but I think you'll agree it deserves to be.

You're looking at one of the largest equestrian statues ever cast. Most large American cities have a statue of grand, but this is a large composition. Not just Grant , but the whole series of statues there are the Lions on the Four Corners around the equestrian statue in at each end of this large Monument are two groups in those are the really interesting sculptures to look at. On one side if we walk over is a group of artillerymen pulling a case on through the mud and dirt. The artillery group is on the south side, that is if your facing the Capitol it's on your right. What's amazing about the Statue to me is that, here in the early nineteen-hundreds before movies have really taken hold, you have a sort of cinematic sculpture we can almost see the mud flying off the hooves of these horses and you get a real sense of the movement and the sort of dynamic quality of the soldiers as they're plowing through this muddy road. On the left is another group. This time a group of horsemen, equally charging, equally dynamic almost as if the horsemen and the artillery Group are going to crash into each other. Of course they can't because Grant is sitting between them, absolutely unruffled staring up down the mall towards the Washington Monument. The Grant Memorial was finished in 1922. That same year the Lincoln Memorial at the other end of the mall was also inaugurated, so you have the president and his top general looking at each other across the expanse of the National Mall.

Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

If you're walking between the Grant Memorial and the Washington Monument, there's a long stretch without any memorials. I'd like to take advantage of this and talk to you a little bit about the Mall itself. Most national capitals have a large public space at the center which is kind of symbolic public meeting room. Think of Trafalgar Square in London or Red Square in Moscow, Tiananmen Square in Beijing or the Champs-Élysées in Paris. In Washington DC we don't have a square or a boulevard, we have the Mall. A great grassy space stretched out between double rows of America Alms on each side. We take the Mall for granted but it's really a very unusual sort of public meeting space. Pierre Charles L’Enfant who planned Washington intended for this space to be a great boulevard leading from the capitol to the Washington Monument, which in his plan was not an obelisk as we have today but an equestrian statue of George Washington.

This boulevard was never built. Over the years a number of architects proposed different sorts of landscaping. Finally in 1850 President Fillmore commissioned Andrew Jackson Downing who was one of the most famous landscape architects of the day, to actually finish the Mall, and Downing designed a picturesque english-style series of parks with serpentine roads and picturesque groups of trees and ponds as a way of filling up space.

Downing died before the park was finished and once more the Mall languished and it wasn't really until 1900 that the Mall started to take its present shape.

The person responsible is Frederick Law Olmsted Jr the son of the famous landscape architect. It was he who had the vision that the mall should not be a picturesque English style Park, or a French boulevard, but instead in his words a broad and simple space of turf and this is what we have today. Most of the buildings along the Mall are pulled well back behind the lines of double elms. The only building that pushes its way right into the Mall is the red brick Smithsonian Castle, which predates the plan of Olmstead and his colleagues. They assumed that the Smithsonian would be demolished and that the line of them would be returned, of course that didn't happen. There's all sorts of architecture along the Mall. Modern and old, classical and Victorian. The Mall is big enough to absorb them all and I think the variety is actually something that we can enjoy. The Mall is an unusual sort of urban space. It's also a democratic space where people can do activities in small groups or large. The other quality of the Mall that sets it apart from any other central space in the city that I know of, is that it's extremely large. it's much bigger than a city like Washington needs and it's really scale to the size of the continent. the Mall is an American space for the whole country and I think that's why it truly is America's front lawn.

The National Mall

The Washington Monument is one of the oldest memorials on the Mall and yet curiously it's one of the most modern. It's the most abstract, the least decorated, and in many ways the most moving. The monument stands at a particular importance spot. On one side is the White House on the opposite side is the Jefferson Memorial and at one end is the Lincoln Memorial and the other end is the capital. The Washington Monument stands in the middle or at least it should. Actually the Washington Monument is a little bit out of place. What happened was when they started to build a monument in the place that L’Enfant had marked, they discovered that the foundations we're on very muddy soil and the whole thing had to be moved fifty or sixty feet inland. Congress decided in 1783 to honor George Washington with a special Monument on this location but it was years before anything actually happened. In 1847, Robert Mills who was one of the best-known architects of that time, submitted a design for a huge Obelisk 600 feet high. The cornerstone of the monument was laid in 1848 and work began. Unfortunately, the Civil War broke out and brought it to a halt. For 25 years the monument was unfinished a, stubby hundred fifty-foot high column. It was around this time that the Washington Monument ran into another problem. It started to tip over.

To rectify this large abutments were built spreading out at the base of the column to keep it straight. To hide these abutments, earth was piled up around the Obelisk and the hill that you're standing on was created. If you look up at the Monument you can see where the color of the stone slightly changes, which was the point in 1880 when they started to build again. The Monument when was dedicated in 1885, slightly more than a century after it was first planned. The Washington Monument is one of my favorite memorials in Washington DC. It does everything a Memorial should. It catches our attention that inspires us, it doesn't overwhelm us with information and yet it makes us feel taller and grander, and somehow important which is in many ways what monuments set out to do. You can also appreciate the absolutely minimalist way that it hits the ground, it simply disappears into the circular plaza.&nbsp; From the top of the Monument Hill, you’ll notice that there are some low walls along the side. These have been recently built and they're part of improvements to the monument, but also security barriers to stop terrorist truck bombers from driving up the hill. Unfortunately, terrorism has required many sorts of new security measures. This is a particularly successful example of a security device which is unobtrusive, effective, and also aesthetically pleasing.

Washington Monument

The Jefferson Memorial was built in 1943 and it stands opposite the White House directly on the other side of the Washington Monument completing L’Enfants composition. It's a classical building whose form recalls the Roman Pantheon, which is particularly appropriate since this is a model that Jefferson used for example in his library at the University of Virginia. The Jefferson Memorial which was designed by John Russell Pope, who actually died before construction began, is the last great classical monument on the Mall. Starting in 1900 for 40 years classical architecture reigned supreme. By the time that the Jefferson Memorial was complete, the sort of classical architecture it represented was considered old-fashioned, and modern architecture was on the scene. It was President Roosevelt who was responsible for the Jefferson Memorial, one of our last presidents other than Jefferson himself, who was actively interested in architecture, Roosevelt was disappointed that there was no memorial dedicated to Thomas Jefferson. Roosevelt who was an admirer of classical architecture, undoubtedly influenced the design of the Jefferson Memorial. When we reach the memorial were greeted by a long flight of stairs. Let's go up and see the interior of this building. You can pause this recording until we get to the statue.

When we enter the building we find a large 19 foot statue of the president made by Rudolf Evans, cast in bronze in the center of a circular hall. Don't feel bad if you're not moved by it. I'm not moved by it either. It's a very conventional and rather unimaginative rendering of the president, which doesn't convey any of his energy or inventiveness or dynamism. It's a prototypical great man statue in bronze. Daniel Chester French his Statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial is much more successful. In its position on the Tidal Basin and its completion of the Mall, I think that Pope’s building is extremely successful. As a memorial to Thomas Jefferson, it feels a little stiff, a little too formal, a little too constraining. Jefferson was a dynamic individual. Always knocking down on a cello and rebuilding it, always trying experiments. Open to new ideas. He feels a little bit hemmed in by this beautiful but rather rigid architecture.

Jefferson Memorial

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial which was dedicated in 1997, is very different from the older memorials on the Mall. We come upon it very suddenly and it doesn't have the architectural presence of the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial or the Jefferson Memorial. It's really more like a landscape or a garden, a series of walls defines four different areas which correspond to each to one of Roosevelt's four terms. I'll let you guide yourself through this rather complicated and extended Memorial, but I'll say a few things about some of my favorite parts of it. Before we enter the memorial, stop and look at a statue of the president sitting in a wheelchair. This was added after the Memorial was complete to recognize the important role that Roosevelt's disability played in his presidency. The statue is life-size, it doesn't stand on a base and the wheelchair is said to have been designed by Roosevelt himself.

Go on into the first section of the memorial which represents Roosevelt's first term and notice the sayings on the walls. The use of water which will change as the memorial continues and the incorporation of art into the memorial. In the second outdoor room their number of sculptures by George Segal representing aspects of the Great Depression. The sculptures are standing on the ground instead of on a plinth and they are life size. Bringing memorials down-to-earth so to speak is a good idea, but it can also backfire. The last time I visited the memorial, people were lining up with the sculptures of the breadline getting photographed horsing around and generally creating an atmosphere that was fun but not what you would normally expect in the Presidential Memorial .

Notice as you walk through the rooms how the granite rocks from the walls are also arranged on the ground, to give a feeling of chaos in the World War II area and to give a sense of dynamism to the arrangement of these outdoor spaces. One of my favorite sculptures in the FDR Memorial is in the final outdoor room that corresponds to Roosevelt fourth term. It's by Leonard Baskin and it's a bronze bar relief sculpture above a still pool of water a little bit on the side and easy to miss. It depicts a funeral cortege and reminds us that only a few months after he was inaugurated for the 4th time, FDR traveling in Georgia suffered a fatal stroke. What Baskin captures is the immense sadness felled by a nation that had the same president for more than twelve years suddenly to see him taken.

The FDR Memorial is a daring attempt to redefine what a monument is. To make a monument that in some ways is not monumental, that's modern, that's down to earth. Is it a success? Yes I think partially it is. Part of the way the FDR Memorial is modern is the way it deals with time. Walking through it is like walking through a movie of Franklin Roosevelt's life, of experiencing the different phases that he went through and the nation went through. It's very large but then it commemorates a very large larger-than-life personality. Perhaps only Roosevelt deserves this kind of expensive treatment.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

There is only one memorial on the mall that commemorates the First World War. It was built in 1931 by the District of Columbia to memorialize the local citizens who had taken part in the war. It's located not far from the Second World War Memorial. And it is an memorial that many even long-time District residents don't know about. I'm not going to say too much about this small memorial but it's worth a visit. As a footnote it's interesting that this is the first memorial on the mall to list women and African-Americans together with white males.

When you approach the memorial, you might think it looks like a little Roman Temple. In fact, it was designed as a bandstand. Just large enough to accommodate the entire Marine Corps Band which played at the inauguration conducted by none other than John Philip Sousa. What I particularly like about the DC world war memorial is it small scale, it's modesty and also the pairing of the commemoration of a serious event with something as lighthearted as band music. And while you walk to the next Memorial here's a little bit of what the Marine Band might have played during that day in 1931.

Stars and Stripes Forever was performed by the United States Marine Band. For more information on Marine Band recordings, visit Marine Band.USMC.mil

Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Path_of_bouquets_03_-_DC_War_Memorial_-_Memorial_Day_-_Washington_DC_-_2014.jpg">"Path of bouquets 03 - DC War Memorial - Memorial Day - Washington DC - 2014"</a> by&nbsp;Tim Evanson is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>

D.C. War Memorial

There was a lot of controversy when the World War II Memorial was built. It was the first classical design on the Mall since the Jefferson Memorial. Many people felt the classical style was not appropriate and that a more contemporary architecture would have been more successful. I'm not sure if that's really the problem with the World War II Memorial. It certainly works really well as an outdoor space. You can see people enjoying the fountain, the water, the wonderful location between the Washington Monument and one side and the Lincoln Memorial far off across the reflecting pool and the other.

But some of the symbolism of the World War II Memorial is obscure. The pylons that you see forming semi-circles on each side represent the States. But unlike the Civil War where states formed their own regiments, the Second World War was a national war. So it's not sure what these State pylons actually symbolize. The pavilions on the two sides of the memorial represent the Atlantic and Pacific where the World War was fought. I'm sure this is important to the people who were involved, but it seems to me a rather simple way to commemorate this great conflict.

What I find much more interesting are the series of bar relief panels as you enter the memorial from the east. Most of the memorial is quite abstract with the panels commemorate the human side of the war. These panels, which were the work of Raymond Kaskey, depict a series of events both from the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war. Both at home and abroad. Factories, people making armaments, farmers working and gathering grain, women workers assembling planes, sailors, airmen, soldiers. The last panel on the Atlantic side as you descend into the memorial, shows American soldiers and Russian soldiers, perhaps in Berlin, meeting and shaking hands. Curiously it is the only suggestion in the whole memorial that the Americans actually had allies during the Second World War an important omission.

Once you descent into the memorial, you quickly realize what a pleasant place this actually is. Apart from its commemorate function it is a good piece of Urban Design, a real addition to the Mall. As a place to sit down and enjoy the Mall, to watch the fountains and to listen to the water in the presence of other people, the World War II Memorial is a great success.

National World War II Memorial

If you walk over to the north side of the reflecting pool, you'll come to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the first modern memorial in the Mall. Part of the story of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the way in which it was designed. Maya Lin was a student of Architecture at Yale and she entered the competition and won. Partly because of Maya Lin's excellent design and partly because of its role in the period of national healing after the war, this Memorial has had an enormous influence on contemporary design.

It seems like every new memorial today has to have a wall with writing on it. Yet Veterans Memorial is modern, but it's not really abstract. First of all it contains 58000 names carved into black granite. In other words it's a gravestone. Secondly the path leads us down into the earth, which in the western tradition represents the underworld, Land of the Dead. And that's what this Memorial is really about, not glory not victory but sacrifice and death.

The V shape of the memorial is like a huge landscape sculpture. It orients you to either the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial depending on which way you're walking. There two sculpture groups related to the Vietnam memorial that you might also want to look at. The Tree Service Men statues is by the late sculptor Frederick Hart. Nearby is the Vietnam Women's Memorial, which is by Glenna Goodacre. These sculpture groups are interesting, but they are really not an integral part of the main monument. Part of the success is the compression of the design. What I mean is that it's very very simple and Maya Lin doesn't clutter up the memorial with extraneous information, we have a path that leads us down and then back up again. We have a wall with names on it and that's about it. It's very very simple and extremely effective.

Most memorials are built decades, even many decades after the events or the people they memorialize. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is an exception that was built shortly after the end of the war and I think part of the great impact it's had on the American public is the fact that people who took part in the war and lost loved ones in the war were alive to experience this Memorial. It remains to be seen what role it will play a hundred years from now when the Vietnam War itself is but a distant memory.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

One of my favorite memorials is the Lincoln Memorial. Its more than 80 years old but it still exerts a powerful effect on us. Partly that’s its location at the far end of the Mall, lined up with the Washington Monument and the Capitol. It's also a beautiful building designed by the architect Henry Bacon in 1922.

As you make the long climb up the white steps, notice the Doric columns that have the names of states carved into the battement above them. There are 36 columns, representing the 36 states of the Union at the time of Lincoln's death.

When you reach the top of the steps, before you go in, stop and turn around. You're looking out across the reflecting pool to the Washington Monument and the Dome of the Capitol beyond. This is a historic spot. In 1939 Marian Anderson sang America to a crowd of 75,000 people, effectively starting the modern Civil Rights Movement. It was here to that Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. Now go through the columns to the interior of the memorial.

Walking between the columns we come to the large and impressive interior. There no windows, the light comes through alabaster skylights. Of course the 19 foot statue of Lincoln by Daniel Chester French is the focus of the space. Lincoln always strikes me as determined, but somehow tired. On the two side walls are the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. Putting the statue of a dead president in a Roman Temple sounds corny and almost too much. Yet Henry Bacon, the architect and Daniel Chester French pull it off. They built many full-size models of the statue inside the space to get the size right. The other thing that keeps this giant statue from appearing bombastic is that French makes Lincoln appear contemplative, rather than heroic. It's not what we expect when we come up the stairs into a Roman Temple, Lincoln is larger than life. But he's very humid at the same time. The Lincoln Memorial is that rare example of a memorial that's also a great work of art. That's probably why this representation of Lincoln, which is reproduced so often and it's so familiar, resists becoming a cliché. It continues to move us.

Lincoln Memorial

On the south side of the reflecting pool is the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The most noticeable feature as you approach the memorial is a group of 19 aluminum figures. They're soldiers on patrol. If you look closely you'll see that they come from the different services, GI’s, Marines, Sailors and Airmen.

The soldiers are reflected in the black granite wall which has photographic images etched into it and leads to a reflecting pool. A curb besides the path lists the nations that took part in the United Nations police action. Unlike the Vietnam Memorial were a minimum of information produces a highly-charged emotional effect, the Korean War Veterans Memorial suffers from information overload. You'll have to make up your own mind about this. Personally I find it too busy and disjointed. I don't really know what to focus on. Sometimes less really is more. Let me show you what I'm talking about. The wall of the Memorial for example is clearly inspired by the Vietnam Memorial nearby. Its black shiny granite and we also see our reflections in it. But instead of names it's covered in picture. It feels more gimmicky than solemn.

So do the statues of the soldiers. They are larger than life size. They're made out of grey aluminum rather than bronze which somehow gives them the look of caricature rather than statues. Maybe the Korean War veterans memorial just tries too hard. It wants to tell us about the soldiers who took part, the countries, the dates, it has all sorts of symbols. But it somehow doesn't quite add up. And instead of getting emotionally connected to the memorial we feel that we've been listening to a lesson in a classroom. All in all this isn't my favorite Memorial in the Mall.

Korean War Veterans Memorial

Welcome to Washington! We hope you're having a great time so far. Witold Rybczynsk, Slates architecture critic will take you on a tour of Memorials on the Mall in Washington DC. We will start at the Grant Memorial at the base of Capitol Hill and finish at the Lincoln Memorial on the west end of the Mall. Along the way you will stop at the Washington Monument, the FDR Memorial and several others.&nbsp;

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Memorials on the National Mall

Washington DC

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Washington DC

Memorials on the National Mall

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