Krier speaks out against Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial design

Feb 2012

By Karissa Rosenfield — Filed under: Architecture News ,Monuments and Memorials , Frank Gehry, Gehry Partners, Washington D.C.

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Summer view looking northeast along Maryland Avenue through the memorial site © Gehry & Partners

The controversy surrounding Frank Gehry’s proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial has just reached new heights as the Chicago Tribune’s Blair Kamin has recently published a 1,500-word essay, written by the influential neo-traditionalist architect Leon Krier, that bashes Gehry’s proposal and ideology. Krier calls Gehry a “greatly confused artist” who’s “style is a century old” and “seems “innovative” only to the ignorant”. Kier continues to claim the commission who appointed Gehry’s design “shares his [Gehry’s] intellectual confusion and distaste of classical Washington D.C.” Continue reading for more.

Krier describes the 25 meter-tall woven metal tapestries as embodying a “chain-link aesthetic” that that has served as “a widespread formula used since the early 1950s in Germany by Egon Eiermann to dress up superstores.”

Krier states, “The scale and character of the blotted tagged fence relates more to highway billboards and graffiti than to the historic tapestry it declaredly refers to. The giant illustrated screens intend to create a sacred memorial area, but the devotional imagery is perceived like a mere backdrop through a thicket of trees, best read from the outside. The centerless monument effectively amounts to an open-air cinema overtaken by a wild-growth of sycamore. An anti-monument if there can be such a thing.”

Judging on the essay, it is safe to say Krier has joined Richard Driehaus in the campaign for a replacement scheme. Out of fairness, they have requested a response, however there has been no word from Gehry.

Learn more about the controversy here on ArchDaily and be sure to read the entire essay by Leon Krier on the Chicago Tribune.

Reference: Chicago Tribune, BDOnline

Cite:
Rosenfield , Karissa . "Krier speaks out against Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial design" 17 Feb 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 25 May 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/209217>

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jeb says:

Gehry summed up well in the first paragraph.

# February 17, 2012 at 12:23

ygogolak says:

True, but coming from Leon Krier it’s one of the most hypocritical statements made about Architecture.

# February 17, 2012 at 15:17

Scott Sowers says:

It seems funny to me that Krier calls Gehry a “greatly confused artist” who’s “style is a century old” but Krier and his pals would like to see more neoclassical architecture in Washington – a form we borrowed from ancient Greece. So, even older stuff is better? I don’t get it.

# February 17, 2012 at 16:23

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Ted says:

I wish all these conservative postmodern losers like Krier and Eisenman would crawl back under whatever rock they were living for the past decade. Architecture was far better without them in the debate. They’ve already proved to be terrible architects and irrelevant theorists. It’s like Dick Cheney coming back from the shadows. They should just stay retired in my opinion.

# February 17, 2012 at 16:58

peter says: