Im the deputy executive director of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. And were here tonight in washington, d. C. At the northwest corner of the new president ial memorial for dwight d. Eisenhower. But this story starts about a thousand miles west of washington, d. C. In abilene, kansas. And while eisenhower was born in dennison, texas, his family moved back to abilene, kansas when he was just a toddler. He stayed there through high school. I want to direct your view over here to this speech that is inscribed on this wall in the northwest corner of the memorial. When world war ii ended eisenhower came home to abilene and was given a heroes welcome and in a very humble way he started talking about not that he was a hero but what he dreamed of doing when he was a young boy in abilene, kansas. And ended with the proudest thing that i can claim is that i am from abilene. I come here first to thank you, to say the proudest thing i can claim is that i am from abilene. That first paragraph of that speech was a primary inspiration for the designer of the memorial frank gehry. And hes expressed that here in this statue of Young Eisenhower as a teenage boy, sitting on a stone block, looking in the direction of two of his greatest accomplishments, president of the United States and Supreme Commander of the allied expedition nair forces. The stone comes from spain. All the stone in the memorial is ambar limestone. He was cast life sized. By the sculptor sergei bekhoff and there are 13 on the site and sergei has done all of them. Young ike was the last to arrive. He was just recently installed in may. Theres a photograph of eisenhower teenage boy wearing some dungarees with a bunch of friends just sitting there. I think they were camping is what they were actually doing. And that was the photo that kept coming back up to the front when gehry was looking for the photo that he wanted to encapsulate this young man. And one of the things we found as we went through the review agency processes was that everybody really liked that you had a kid memorialized here, for someone to come and see heroic sized 9 foot sculptures, massive and four feet tall. Were hoping when they come here they can see someone their size and think i wonder how he did that, who he was and it will spark more curiosity to learn about eisenhower and his youth and then later his career. You probably could not find a site in washington, d. C. That is more suited for Dwight Eisenhower to have a memorial. This square is surrounded by health and human services, which used to be called Health Education and welfare, which was started during the eisenhower administration, then behind you you have the department of education, again formerly h. E. W. , started during the eisenhower administration. The federal aviation administration. Again, started during the eisenhower administration. And the jewel in the crown, if you will, the air and space museum. And of course nasa, which began during the eisenhower administration. So its perfectly suited for ike. As we walk into the memorial from this corner we have a column here that has the five stars, which was, of course, the insignia for general eisenhower and the other five star generals during world war ii. When the legislation was passed in 1999 that created the Eisenhower Memorial Commission unique to this president ial memorial was the fact that it called for him to be recognized not only as the 34th president of the United States but the Supreme Court allied commander of the European Expeditionary force, this column which is 10 1 2 feet in diameter and is clad once again in the same limestone ambar from spain then recognizes this role that he had as the five star general and commander of all the forces in europe in world war ii. There are eight giant columns on this site. Two of them anchor the corners of the site. Theyre free standing. This one in recognition of the general. And the one on the far opposite corner, which has a profile of eisenhower from the Silver Dollar profile that everyone has probably seen and also his first inaugural coin that then says 34th president of the United States. The other six columns support the tapestry. And we can talk about them in a little bit. Right now were walking into the center of the memorial and the memorial is in the center of a four acre park. In this part of d. C. There are a lot of government buildings. The mall is a block in the to the north. And so this is really giving people who live and work in d. C. And who come here as tourists a nice cooling place to sit down, get off their feet, have a bottle of water. Just relax. And then, when theyre ready, proceed into the what the center of the memorial is which is the contemplative area. While were here in this spot we should stop for a minute and look at the capitol. We are in the middle of maryland avenue right now. Maryland avenue and pennsylvania avenue were sister avenues in the plan for d. C. And preserving them in their original intent was very important. Pennsylvania avenue was developed with a little more discipline than maryland avenue was. When you look, the intent was that from the capitol you could look all the way to the potomac down maryland avenue and you could look from the capitol all the way to the white house down pennsylvania avenue. Well, that didnt quite happen in maryland avenue. It wasnt the building lines werent regular as they are in pennsylvania avenue. So preserving the original cartway in the plan was important. And gehry has done this in a greenway, which is a different kind of grass than you see on the side. Its mowed grass and theres a granite strip that commemorates the original maryland avenue as designed. Its frankly one of the few places in the city where you can stand in the middle of a street and not get hit by a car and enjoy the view of the capitol both in daytime and nighttime. So now were entering the center of the memorial. And this is really the contemplative area. This is the place where were hoping youll stop and youll think about eisenhower and learn a little bit more about him. There are audio tours that are podcasts wherever you get your podcasts that will tell you in depth what you are seeing and the idea behind it. Theres an interview with the designer frank gehry, and he talks a lot about the tapestry. Then youll understand gehrys concept and how he eventually developed this memorial. Over here we have the recognition of eisenhower as supreme allied commander. This sculpture grouping is inspired by a very famous photo that was taken on the even of dday. Eisenhower is speaking to the 101st airborne. He chose that group to speak to because it was anticipated that they could have a 70 or higher casualty rate. So he went out there. He found some of the 101st airborne. The story goes he wanted to know if anybody was from kansas. One of the these soldiers do not represent any particular people. But some of the original soldiers that were in the group say hes holding his hand that way because he was talking about fly fishing. Maybe true. It might not be true. But thats the story. So youll notice these paratroopers, all the gear that they had to have with them when they jumped had to be strapped to their bodies. And so they have these youll see straps going around and some of them hauled ammunition and some of them hauled the things they would need to survive because they were being dropped behind the lines. And there is eisenhower with the very famous eisenhower jacket, which was that shorter cut off at the waist. The other thing i want you to look at is how young some of these soldiers are. The two on the outside of this grouping of four look very young and its a reminder that these soldiers that were going on the invasion the next day, a lot of them were just kids. And so thats reflected here in this sculpture. And then behind them theres a bar relief thats 15 feet high and 35 feet long. And on that is carved an approach to normandy. So youll see on the top right the normandy coastline. The cliffs there. Remember, the americans were going in at omaha and utah beaches, and omaha had some very high bluffs that they had to overcome. And then youll see some of the landing crafts approaching. So this also was done by the sculptor sergei bekhoff and it was done in italy. It also is spanish limestone ambar. And then theres a giant lintel that sits askew on top of the bar relief and that message is from the dday address that every soldier, airman and seaman was given on dday and this is one of the very famous sentences from it. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching to victory. These sculptures were produced in italy using the same method that theyve been producing sculptures there for centuries. And thats called the lost wax process. The sculptor makes a clay model and the clay model is covered in kind of a wax. And then the wax is cut into pieces off the clay model and a hard plaster is put around the wax model to keep it from moving, to stabilize it. And then that goes off to the foundry and the foundry takes that wax impression of the statues and creates another wax impression using a very, very hard black wax. That black wax is then encased in another form of slurry, like a ceramic slurry, both inside and outside. That goes into an oven and the temperature is turned up and the wax melts out. And into that space the hot bronze is poured. And thats where the statues then absolutely resemble the first wax impression that was made. And its done in pieces, various pieces, not all at once. And then theyre reassembled. These were all shipped here. Took about a month at sea in a container. And then theyre installed with rods that are about 18 inches long that are embedded into the stone and concrete base. So now well walk over here and see the president ial side. People often think that the 50s were they talk about it like it was this really wonderful, tranquil time but it was actually a very dangerous time in the world. Europe was ravaged as a result of world war ii. Communism was spreading. Eisenhower had just left to run for president being the First Military commander of nato. And he was trying to unify the military forces there so they could prevent another war from breaking out in that part of europe. So eisenhowers approached about running for president , and hes not really interested in politics. Hes never voted. He doesnt think military people should be partisan. And the republicans visit him. And hes hesitant about running but hes also worried that americas going to slip back into isolationism. So he agrees to run. In fact, hes a writein candidate in some states. Hes a drafted candidate in others. He goes into the Republican Convention with most people believing taft was going to win. And he emerges with the republican nomination. And so hes now presiding over an america in a time when the korean war is going on. As i said before, the 50s were actually a very dangerous time in the world, very unstable. Europe was trying to reunify and rebuild. Eisenhower came into office, ended the korean war. And then really went about building on the postworld war ii economic recovery of america. He thought americans were exhausted. They needed peace and prosperity. But that was not just going to happen. That would only happen if america was strong. And so we started building up and keeping, then, a Permanent Military establishment. So in this imagery here you see eisenhower and three aides. One is a military aide and two are civilian aides. And this is, again, to remind us that eisenhower always had to hold intention. Peace and freedom. But yet the power for america to defend itself and its allies. And he said it in an interview at the end of his time as president , that not one soldier was lost in battle. Not one foot of land was lost in war. And that that didnt just happen. And many people, again, think that we just cruised through the 50s. But the 50s was really a very dangerous time. And eisenhower oversaw america as it really emerged into being the world leader that it now was from where it had been prior to world war ii. So we have the military adviser, again representing americas permanent role in the world. And then here you have two civilian advisers, one of whom is an africanamerican. And eisenhowers often overlooked in the civil rights struggle. But while he was president he enacted the first civil rights legislation since reconstruction. He also desegregated the district of columbia. And he completed what truman began as the desegregation of the after the brown versus board of education decision in arkansas and little rock they were refusing to carry through with the order to integrate the schools and eisenhower brought the 101st airborne, not the same people, but the same unit, you see depicted there, to little rock to enforce the law. And thats what this sculptural grouping is representing. And behind them we have a map of the world. And that is to represent eisenhowers international standing. He lived in panama. He lived in the pihilippines. He probably understood the world outside of the United States better than any president weve had. And part of that was due to his military career. And then at this lintel, which again sits askew the block, we have an excerpt from his second inaugural address. We look upon this shaken earth and we declare our firm and fixed purpose, the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails. On the back of both of these blocks are some of the texts from eisenhowers more powerful speeches that he gave. On the back of the president ial block we have an excerpt, a very lengthy excerpt from his first inaugural address. And next to it we have what most people probably remember about eisenhowers speech, speeches which was the farewell address. And we put it here in its context, almost its entire context. So people can read what he said about the military industrial establishment. And they can decide for themselves what he was really meaning by that. His farewell address is very similar to the kind of farewell address that washington gave when he left office. And, in fact, doing that was inspired by eisenhower was inspired by washingtons farewell address to do that. And then well walk over here to the back of the genocide which has the guild hall address on it. It was a speech that eisenhower gave when he was given free range of the city to london, which we would call the key to the city. Its a very poignant address. It talks out it begins by saying humility must be the potion of any man whose fame is earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends. Its really beautiful. Humble prose. By this man who was being greeted as a conquering hero. And he went on to talk about the suffering that mothers and wives and children had because they didnt have husbands or fathers returning. So thats on the back here. There are 4600 hand carved letters on the back of these both these blocks. We move back now along independence avenue so we can get we move back now to independence avenue so we can take a look at this massive tapestry. It consistents of 600 panels of woven cable representing a design which, in this case, is in normandy france. Originally garys image for this was a landcape for kansas. But as the design evolved the image on the aest try evolved as well. We took some photos with a drone, but they didnt translate to this medium very well. So frank gary sat down and drew it and sketched it out and it is represented on the tappe espeta. Eep panel has fine layers of it. And on top of that is an art wire, a thicker, heavier art wire. If you go to the website there is an interview with thomas osinsky who came up with the idea to create this and mass produce the panels. We could not make 600 panels if each one took three months. So lets walk a little closer and you can see the design as we get closer. The whole toppest try tapestry is under lit. It comes on at dusk, and the wires glow. One of the really interesting things is that it looks different no matter at any time of day when you come here. If it is sunny, a overcast day, sometimes it is just a screen between the department of education and the memorial. Other times the sun glints off of it. There are five beams that are there and six columns. Those columns on the end are doing all of the work of holding the tappeestry, these were designed to support the tapestry. We can walk around behind the back and see how it looks. Some of them have the art wires on the front and some have the panels on the back. In the daytime this reads really well with the blue sky behind it. In fact sometimes its inve invisible. From here the wires look back because theyre lit from the inside. So from the time this was an idea how long has it taken this memorial to get here . The legislation was passed in 1999. There are four senators, four members of the house of representatives and hour president ial appointees, over the years people have had to leave commissioners have retired, commissioners have died. We have a couple four, i think, that have been there from the beginning. But in 2014 senator path robeeo took over and that was transformational. Gary was selected in 2009. And we went there my attentions before this design was approved. Congress provided the funds and construction started. So the building process all in all was about 30 months. How much does Something Like this cost . The total projects was about 150 million. Most of that was funds. Th shl memorials are traditionally under takings of the people. Many are started by a nonprofit, a friends group, Congress Grants land and they raise the money and build a memorial, but now the seven memorials in dc have been paid for by federally appropriated dollars. In this case we raised 15 million. The rest was getting the design, the lance, the soft sources. Our his is told in different ways and one of the ways is memorials and monuments. We have exal program thats will be on the National ParkService Website that will be hosted by the eisenhower foundation. I just think you look over here and you say who are those guys . And what is that giant stainless steel thing over here. And you listen to the aud yore tours, maybe you listen to your teacher, and you go away and you learn about a guy that came from kansas. He was not his family wasnt well known. His family wasnt rich. He figured out how to get a leg education and he went on to serve his country for the rest of his life until he retired from the president sigh in 1960. Its a great, american story. You said over the past decade and at almost every step from the design compe