Panel Approves Design for WWII Monument

A proposed memorial on the National Mall to those who fought and died in World War II was given final approval late Thursday after a stormy day of testimony before the National Capital Planning Commission.

The commission--the final federal body required to approve the proposal before a planned groundbreaking ceremony on Veterans Day--voted, 7 to 5, to bless the broad design of the memorial--a pool and a sunken granite plaza ringed by wreathed columns and a pair of arches. It also approved placing the edifice on the National Mall between the Lincoln and Washington memorials.

The commission withheld its final OK of a sculptural element, known as the Light of Freedom, that would appear at the center of the $138-million memorial’s pool, as well as the edifice’s final nighttime lighting scheme. Critics have complained that the lighting would make the monument outshine the Lincoln and Washington memorials.

The panel also called on the National Park Service, which would oversee the memorial’s construction and maintenance, to tone down the golden sheen of a wall of stars included in the design.

In addition, the commission said, it will consider at a later date a number of structures related to the memorial, including ranger stations and access roads. Protesters have appealed to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to deny a building license for the memorial.

In granting final approval, the commission rejected an alternative that would have asked the memorial’s designers--Rhode Island architect Friedrich St. Florian and the American Battle Monuments Commission--to reduce the height of the memorial’s 56 columns and paired arches, elements that many critics have said would mar the open vista of the National Mall.

Although the project had progressed with relatively little opposition for more than five years, it has come under increasing fire in recent months from historic preservationists, civil rights leaders and even a rump group of World War II veterans. Those opponents, arguing that the federal government has not studied the memorial’s effect on the environment and historic structures as required by law, plan to file suit today to halt construction.

At Thursday’s often-raucous nine-hour hearing, about half the 98 speakers lambasted the project. “It is the wrong memorial in the wrong place,” said Howard Shuman, a World War II Navy veteran.

But supporters praised the memorial as an appropriate tribute to the achievements of what many now call “the greatest generation.”

“The time is now and the place is the National Mall,” said supporter Tim Ketchum.