Architect discusses World War I Memorial to be built a block from NPC

World War I — "America's forgotten war" — will be remembered a block from the National Press Club, and the architect who designed the World War I Memorial discussed its evolution at a May 20 online meeting of the Club's American Legion Post 20.

Authorized by Congress in in 2014 and due for completion in 2024, the long-delayed national tribute to Americans who served in "the war to end all wars" in Pershing Park just south of the Willard InterContinental Hotel was designed by Joe Weishaar, a young architect whose entry beat out 364 rivals. 

Weishaar told Legionnaires and meeting guests that he knew almost nothing about the war that shaped much of the 20th Century, and beyond, when he started creating his proposal to remake the deteriorating two-acre parcel on Pennsylvania Avenue. He began by studying thousands of photographs of what he came to realize were young men from across the country swept into the American Expeditionary Force commanded by Gen. John J. Pershing. (Pershing was an associate member of the Club and urged the founding of Post 20 in 1919.)

Seven government agencies had to sign off on his design, which will be highlighted by a 58-foot-long relief sculpture of 38 figures being cast in bronze by Sabin Howard, a New York-based, Italian-American modern classical artist selected by Weishaar. Models of men, women and children of different races and ethnicities posed for some 12,000 photographs using 154 surround cameras and a computerized system that compressed into six months a mold-making process that would otherwise take 15 to 20 years. The final sculptures are expected to be installed in 2024.

Weishaar's design preserves the existing sculpture of Pershing and adds water and wall features and extensive landscaping, including a display of red poppies made symbolic of the nearly 6 million Allied soldiers killed in the war, including some 120,000 Americans.

A native of Fayetteville, Ark., Weishaar was 25 when he submitted his design and said he felt an affinity for the young Americans who served in the war.  Asked if he regretted any of the tweaks made to his design during the complicated approval process, Weishaar said he wished the site could be made closer to street level for easier access and viewing.  He said dramatic lighting will make the memorial especially exciting to exciting to visit at night.