WASHINGTON (AP) β A jury has selected five design concepts for a new national World War I Memorial to be built in a memorial park in Washington, with ideas ranging from neoclassical architecture to a portrait wall of the “American family.”
Congress has dedicated an existing park along Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House to become a national memorial honoring the veterans of the first world war and the 116,516 American lives lost. A design competition drew 350 entries, and a jury narrowed those to five finalists announced Wednesday.
A law signed by President Barack Obama in December designates Pershing Park as a site to be transformed into the memorial. The dilapidated park from 1981 currently includes a memorial to John J. Pershing, who led the American Expeditionary Force into Europe in 1917.
