A months-long art competition designed to produce an alternate option to architect Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial proposal may have been just for kicks after all. After the National Civic Arts Society announced its winner this week, the Washington Examiner elicited this response from the National Capital Planning Commission, which is overseeing the project planning:
“We are aware of the competition but are not part of it, nor are we tracking it,” Stephen Staudigl, NCPC’s public affiars officer said in an email. Staudigl went on to say the formal design review process is a “public process that provides opportunities for input from individuals and organizations. Competition participants or organizers are welcome to participate in this process to provide comments on the proposed design being prepared by the project architect, and/or provide comments on the results of the competition.”
Of course, when it launched the competition, the arts society had no guarantees. Nobody ever said it would ever consider anything or anyone other than Gehry, who was selected two years ago by the Eisenhower Commission and the National Park Service to design the Eisenhower Memorial.
But that’s still got to smart for winning designer Daniel Cook.
