FDR

One of the more interesting stops to visit in Washington DC is the FDR Memorial. It seems that many people do not know of its existence. The feeling of this large site is that of entering a series of rooms and yet being in a garden. This area was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin. He is well known for his work on fountains and outdoor areas. I visited this area in October 2009 and it happened to be the same time that the architect died. He lived from July 1916 to October 2009. In the obituary written in the Los Angeles Times it states that among the details he included in the design was an exact placement for each of the 4,000 stones that make up the water falls that provide the divides between the rooms. I also discovered that a photograph in my family room is from an earlier work of his, a fountain in front of the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco. I have always felt that this structure makes the whole area. It is the same with the FDR Memorial. It is the fountains and the calming sound of the water that gives the area its feeling of serenity and makes you want to stop and read the inscriptions. Each of these rooms is one area of the FDR legacy. On entering, you see him sitting in a wheel chair. During his lifetime that was one on the biggest secrets. Now days, if a man of that stature was in a wheel chair, I would hope that it would not be a limiting factor for a man in public life. The depression and war are also part of the structure. The five sculptures have captured not just people but the mood that the era represented.

Five Leonard Baskin, Neil Estern, Robert Graham, Tom Hardy, and George Segal did works of art that made these subjects come alive. Master stone carver John Benson made the words permanent and at the same time fit the placement in the stone. It is listed by many tour sites on Google as a must see site. It should also be seen as a more human and respectful site that seems much more natural and less formal then some of the other sites on the mall.