From "Trump officials unveil designs for president’s controversial 250-foot arch/The arch is intended to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary. Military veterans have sued to halt the project, saying it would alter key views of Arlington National Cemetery" (WaPo)(gift link). Excerpt:The project is intended to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary. Built to Trump’s specifications, it would transform a small plot of land between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery into a dominant new monument. Architects and historic preservationists have warned that the planned arch, which would be more than twice the size of the roughly 100-foot Lincoln Memorial and tower over the nearby cemetery, would distort the intent of the existing memorials and obstruct pedestrians’ views....
I think the large size makes the Lincoln Memorial look far away and that makes the new arch less of an imposition. It seems to exist in a different part of town, visible because there is no obstruction, and scenically framed within the arch.
“You got to be kidding,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, after being informed that military veterans were suing to stop the project. “I think it’s going very good, and our veterans are the ones that should like it.”
CORRECTION: I had the wrong drawing embedded at first. This is the one with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance.
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56 comments:
Leftwing TDS vets don't like it. I think it is great! We needed something cool like this.
I would, however, get rid of the lions. Lions aren't native to the United States. Bison would be better.
What's the rush?
"The project is slated for Memorial Circle, a traffic roundabout near Arlington National Cemetery, which city planners have eyed for more than a century as the site of a potential monument."
Arlington National Cemetary is located across the Potomac River and there is already a bridge going to it just behind the Lincoln Memorial. That one has some big gold/bronze hore-and-rider statues that match this arch very well. Frankly, putting an arch in this location makes a lot of design sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington_Memorial_Bridge
While a 250-foot arch is huge, it's a very, very long way away and wouldn't overwhelm the D.C. Mall proper.
These "Military Veterans" are metaphorical cousins of Alex Vindman and likely using their military histories for a partisan advantage. Still, the D.C. monument district is getting overstuffed and there are surely honest objections.
Ugg, "horse and rider." I'm gonna leave "hore and rider" for the humor.
Feck a buncha bison! The Bald Eagle!!!
That’s the Lee mansion in the background of the pic. It’s the big house of Bobby’s plantation, Arlington, which the USG seized as rebel property and turned into the cemetery.
You could take the shot from the other side of the proposed arch and see the Lincoln Memorial, though.
And also, the bigger the arch, the more you’ll see through it. It’s not blocking the view of the cemetery, it’s framing the view.
Finally, I just now realized after years of living here that the Lincoln Memorial and Lee’s house face each other across the river. Like they’re saying “wanna go for two out of three?” CC, JSM
It's okay, but there's room for improvement. Instead of that standard statue of Columbia (or whoever) holding up the lamp of liberty, I'd go for something different. I'm seeing Trump in Zeus pose holding a loft a fistful of thunderbolts. At his feet, kneeling as supplicants, are an ecumenical gathering of Mullahs, Popes, and Rabbis holding aloft their sacred texts for his blessing. Some details need to be further refined, but such a monument would do much to lessen the tensions that have this far surrounded his Presidency..
Unbelievable that "altering key views" could be grounds for a lawsuit. What's the standing argument? Not only should it immediately be thrown out, but the lawyers who filed it should be sanctioned.
You have to dig a little, but it turns out there are 3 Vietnam veterans and a retired architectural historian that are profoundly disturbed by this proposal.
..."The plaintiffs, represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, call the proposed plan a "vanity project" that would disrupt one of Washington's most symbolically charged sightlines between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, a view designed to evoke national unity after the Civil War.
Vietnam veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen believe the structure would "dishonor their military and foreign service" by intruding on a solemn view they visit regularly, according to the complaint. ..."
Nowhere is their political affiliation officially disclosed, but there may be an odd tendency to write in CAPITAL LETTERs in their personal communications....
Three. Three military veterans are suing.
Lawsuit was filed by Public Citizen Litigation Group and the assigned judge is Tanya Sue Chutkan.
Yes, that Chutkan.
Trump should leave his mark symbolically by covering DC with oversized monuments. Monuments are meant to annoy people.
“ That’s the Lee mansion in the background of the pic… You could take the shot from the other side of the proposed arch and see the Lincoln Memorial, though.”
Thanks. I’ll swap in the right drawing in a little while. It’s available along with all the other drawings that you can get to at the Free link.
Make America great again first and leave the monuments for your successors. They will have a better balance of ambition and restraint.
I don’t suppose there is a more beautiful, bleak view in all America than the one from the porch of Lee’s portico, through the fat-bellied Doric columns, looking over the graves of the murdered Kennedy brothers, across the river to the white marble temple that enshrines the memory of yet another murdered President, Abraham Lincoln. - Alistair Cooke
European caca. Reminds me of when Nixon was gonna dress up white house security in feathered swiss monkey outfits. I'm way tired of Trump and his all over the place overly grandiose busyness.
This must be built. Otherwise, Americans may forget what they have done to their nation.
Made it Great Again.
Probably inspired by the arch at Washington Square Park in NYC. A strong whiff of pot odour used to permanently permeate the air there. We are talking pre Mayor Rudy.
Hard to see how anyone could have standing to sue about this, although the recent injunction by a DC district judge enjoining Trump's ballroom certainly suggests that there are judges who are willing to ignore that problem. In the ballroom case, the judge found standing based on a supposed aesthetic injury, meaning a passerby alleged personal injury based on a feeling that the new construction would be ugly. I'd be surprised if that approach to standing will survive appellate review, but who knows in the DC Circuit when the defendant is the Trump Admin. It's also helpful to remember how bitterly some veterans opposed the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- it was denounced as the 'black gash" of death and dishonor. Aesthetic judgments are always subjective, and literally every person passing by could claim standing to sue if that were accepted as a sufficient injury. And, even for politically charged projects like this arch as with the VVM, aesthetic judgments can change with time.
So, any lawsuit seeking to stop this arch is one I'm wishing doesn't succeed on standing grounds alone.
Leland: “ Made it Great Again”
That inspired me: instead of an arch, Trump could just make a big “MAGA” sculpture emulating Robert Indiana’s “LOVE.” That would show them! CC, JSM
Every single action of the Executive branch not specifically related to foreign affairs has ended up in court. We are in affect ruled by 700 US district judges - and Roberts and the SCOTUS democrats love it.
It's hard to take talk of "American Democracy" seriously.
The Vietnam Memorial was indeed controversial but then became beloved. The "me too" Korean War Memorial has more details but feels "me too." The also "me too" WW2 Memorial is tasteful and fits its space very well -- its the best of these three IMO.
D.C.'s monuments are often partisan. The Democrats pushed through some of the worst:
1. The FDR Memorial is four huge, barren courtyards meant to summarize each of his four terms. It's boring after the first segment and doesn't get better. They tore out a Little League field for it, and thereby downgraded the site.
2. The African American Smithsonian looks to have been designed by a cross between a DEI equity committee and the Soviets (see Obama's Chicago library). The dark bronze block is intentionally "out of place" to stand out among the classical "white" stone sameness, but it has an absurdly bad floorplan.
3. The MLK Jr. Memorial is very, very literal and not artistic. A man moving a mountain. Okay. This is what impressionable high schoolers draw in their first art classes.
…the idea of a few of those A-10s solving the problem of a corrupt judiciary comes to mind..
tim Maguire @ 1:12 PM,
You misspelled "disbarred".
Lions? A pride parade, with a young masculine cubs arrangement. No Kings!
A horse and rider... a hore and wider... a whore h/t NAACP and bighter, of course. A black mare?
Or misspelled "bastinadoed."
If judges can judge based on passersby who "alleged personal injury based on a feeling that the new construction would be ugly", the Obama Pseudo-Library would have been imploded like Pruitt-Igoe long before it was finished. And crowds of all races would have cheered the event.
A bald eagle. Otherwise, USA!
The lack of accompanying criticism for the current corrupt judiciary sets the stage for brutal hazing of those who will freak at the first feeble attempt at lawfare against the next leftie leader to stumble and bumble to power.
Funny how some federal judges adopt a very expansive view of standing when plaintiffs sue to obstruct the Trump
Administration. But Chief Justice Roberts assures me that federal judges are apolitical. So I must be imagining improper political activism by some federal judges.
We needed something cool like this.
Have you ever been to Arlington National Cemetery? I'm sorry, is it not "cool enough" for MAGA?
Grown men getting hard over Trump's vanity project is pathetic.
Trump Horniness Syndrome. THS.
That's the best they could do? I don't believe the perspective--and I don't believe what Trump says.
With all the modern tech, they shou;d be able to put up a site with a 3-d feel which shows the Lincoln memorial and Arlington House and the Kennedy Center, etc., the whole damn DC landscape with the ability to choose your perspective. Even if Trump's architect is behind the times, they should be able to give a portfolio of views from different perspectives.
If and when they do that, I might develop a better opinion of the memorial.
I'm familiar with the view from the circle, though the TR bridge was my usual commuting route. When you're driving around the circle you better keep your eyes on your driving, not gaping at the memorial.
I note the architect who originally suggested the arch thinks it's too big for the site, should be about half the size.
It could do without the angels and eagles (if that's what they are). Yes, it could also be smaller. I'd recommend thinking outside the box more. Trying something different and more meaningful.
P.S. The most common remark about the MLK Memorial is how the sculptor, Lei Yixin, made MLK look strangely Chinese. Still it is better than Boston's "The Embrace" which looks like a giant floating penis.
FYI: That's the Arlington House (aka Robert E. Lee's house) in Arlington National Cemetery in the background of that photo NOT the Lincoln Memorial.
Here is what the Arlington National Cemetery looks like without the proposed arch.
Arlington Entrance
Personally I think there should be some kind of memorial structure put up commemorating the USA 250 anniversary, but this may not be the best choice. Of course, ANY choice that President Trump makes will be wrong in the eyes of TDS sufferers.
Th argument that the arch will block key views of Arlington National Cemetery is nonsense. It blocks almost nothing unless your flying like a bird at tree top levels.
Also, the arch isn't called the "Trump Arch" like it' being tared, looking at the renderings, it doesn't say that anywhere on the arch.
On one side it says "ONE NATION UNDER GOD" and on the other side it says "LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL", no "Trump Arch" anywhere to be found.
To state the obvious, you can't spell "Triumphal" without "Trump." Not that there's anything wrong with that....
I'm way tired of Trump and his all over the place overly grandiose busyness.
So ignore it.
Bill Harshaw: "I note the architect who originally suggested the arch thinks it's too big for the site, should be about half the size."
Must have put the wrong number of hash marks on the napkin....CC, JSM
No one knows who he was, or what he was doing, but he left a legacy that will last forever - hewn out of the living rock! - of TRUMPHENGE!!!! CC, JSM
As a military veteran myself (yes, U.S.) I can report that the last thing veterans worry about is The View.
"Still, the D.C. monument district is getting overstuffed and there are surely honest objections."
That's going to make moving the Capital to Fargo ND a little more difficult.
its a very classical design, its hard to see any one would find anything wrong with it,
Bison, bison, bison. Preferably trampling a district court judge.
I thought Albert Spear was dead.
Dave Begley, the arch would be a cool project in Omaha, and I would enthusiastically support it there. Maybe over the Nebraska side entrance of the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge? (Just a guess from looking at a map.) Washington DC is already chock-a-block with monuments. This one says, "Look at meeeee!" In the DC context it is just tacky.
If they really wanted buy-in from the general public, then we would be seeing computer-generated fly-bys from all directions and a range of altitudes, say 10 - 1000 ft, so that the proportions could be evaluated from all points of view, from all directions. Make it interactive. My sense is, it's too big - but I would need to see those various reels to evaluate it. You know, start at the Washington monument, fly past the WWII Memorial, over the reflecting pool, past the Lincoln memorial, then across the bridge. Do the same thing in the opposite direction, starting from the middle of Arlington. I-66, Arlington Blvd, and so on.
horse and rider
They're not riding, they're just beefy bronze men covered in gold leaf.
The location is not easily accessible by pedestrians, so it should be made to be seen from a distance. Think that's covered.
Someone on X came up with the obvious name, "Arc de Trump."
The WW2 memorial is odd, because it emphasizes the 48 states, when far few military units were organized by state than in the Civil War and WW1. Almost too late for its veterans, but better than nothing.
I like arches. This could be toned down, but otherwise provides a memorial beacon to some sacred spaces. If it pisses off enough commie whiners to get them to visit the graves of our soldiers and other memorials to sacrifices made by good men in our past, it has done its job.
"I note the architect who originally suggested the arch thinks it's too big for the site, should be about half the size."
Trump is negotiating. They would sue if it were planned at half the size. He'll agree with the architect and get the thing built at half the size.
I, for one, thinkTrump has proposed a 250 foot tall monument so he can get quick approval for a monument half that size. Such a magnaminous compromise would be the death certificate for any objections. Trump, none better, knows how to deal with building-blocking bureaucrats.
Is that a cloud lobster in the illustration?
The 'cloud lobster' would be over the "Kennedy Center" aka "Trump Kennedy Center" performing arts venue. Given the recent controversy, I don't think the artist naively put a dark cloud just there by accident. Perhaps they sought to sneak in a subtle comment.
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