The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center, a proposed $80 million educational facility to be built under the National Mall, can finally move forward after a regional planning agency approved a site steps from two national icons Thursday.
The selection of a 5.2-acre parcel bounded by Henry Bacon Drive, 23rd Street, Constitution Avenue and the Lincoln Memorial ends a heated 16-month debate between veterans, conservationists and Congress, and should make moot legislation currently circulating through Congress to force the issue.
“It has been a long process, but our success today makes it all worthwhile,” said Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
However, critics remained skeptical, fearing the impacts of another memorial built into a more crowded National Mall.
“When the National Mall and politics collide, too often the Mall loses,” said Judy Scott Feldman, chair of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall.
In its unanimous approval, the National Capital Planning Commission stipulated design guidelines it hopes will safeguard the character of the Mall and views from the Lincoln and Vietnam memorials. A number of commissioners were wary of the proposal, fearing adverse effects from lights, traffic and one National Park Service plan to elevate the ground up to 10 feet.
But the group was pressured to act by Congress. The House had already passed a bill mandating the chosen location, with proponents claiming the commission was studying the issue to death.
Without Thursday’s action, the commission would have “no say in the process, and that would be totally reckless,” said Commissioner Herbert Ames, a presidential appointee, said. “It is not our position, nor do we have the power, to stop something because we don’t like it.”
Scruggs said that the commission’s vote “would appear to obviate the need for further legislative involvement.”
The revised design guidelines would mitigate the center’s impacts, commission staff said. Among them: No portion of the building, or the light emanating from it, should be visible from the Lincoln Memorial; the ground should remain at its current grade; the center should not intrude into the landscape with such items as skylights; and there should be no new vehicle parking areas.
Donald Murphy, representing the Department of the Interior on the commission, said the Park Service “morally believes these guidelines are binding,” and pledged to follow them.
Ramifications and plans
» The 25,000-square-foot center will force the removal of existing softball fields.
» The next step is design, which should take three to four months.
» The National Capital Planning Commission will review the design three times before final approval.
