President Dwight Eisenhower’s granddaughter Susan is among those scheduled to testify Tuesday before a Congressional subcommittee on the family’s issues with the proposed memorial to her grandfather.
The controversy surrounding the Eisenhower Memorial planned to be next to the National Mall at Independence and Maryland avenues has pitted the Eisenhower family and their supporters against famed architect Frank Gehry, whose work includes the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The family has said it finds the main theme of the memorial, his depiction as a barefoot boy from Kansas, offensive to his legacy as a two-term president and a supreme Allied commander during World War II.
Tuesday’s hearing will be at 10 a.m. before the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
Although the memorial design was unveiled a year ago, the opposition to it grew louder this winter after grandson David Eisenhower resigned from the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which selected Gehry for the design.
His resignation prompted a letter from Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., asking the National Capital Planning Commission for a delay in approving the memorial. In February, Reps. Dan Lungren, R- Calif., and Aaron Schock, R-Ill., penned a joint letter to the commission echoing Wolf’s protest.
Additionally, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a letter in February to the Eisenhower Memorial Commission requesting copies of the architectural designs and “a detailed description of the process leading to acceptance” of Gehry’s design, including a breakdown of all related votes.
Issa, who chairs the House of Representatives’ principal investigative committee, also asked the commission to preserve all documents related to the design, an indication that more inquiries could be on the way.
Here are the others scheduled to testify Tuesday:
Panel I
Ms. Susan Eisenhower
Mr. Stephen E. Whitesell
Regional Director, National Capital Region
National Park Service
, U.S. Department of the Interior
Mr. Bill Guerin
Assistant Commissioner
, Office of Construction Programs
U.S. General Services Administration
Brig. Gen. Carl W. Reddel, USAF (Ret.)
Executive Director
, Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission
Mr. Howard Segermark
Director and Chairman Emeritus,
National Civic Art Society
Mr. Rodney Cook
President
, National Monuments Foundation, Inc.
Mr. Bruce Cole
Past Chairman,
National Endowment for the Humanities
