The Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial was completed in 1997in Washington, D.C, in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the president of the U.S from 1933 to 1945. His presidency was characterized by World War II and the Great Depression, and Lawrence Halprin designed the monument. Initially, it was a small block of stone located on a small plot in front of the National Archives. However, Lawrence transformed it into a garden oasis that captures the peace and harmony of the legacy and spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Explain the memorial as a work of art for its material, style, and purpose
The Franklin D. Roosevelt is a work of art for its purpose for its material since it was created to commemorate and record aspects of American history that reconcile the current generation to the past. It incorporates a sequence of four garden rooms that were designed in a narrative sequence that tells the story of the U.S during the four terms of the presidency of Franklin. Additionally, based on its material, the memorial offers tangibles ideas and feelings of the designer, Halprin, who used pools of water, trees, waterfalls, bronze statues, and red granite to allow visitors to have the feeling of strolling through the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The style applied in the memorial is modernist, which embraces a diverse collection of experimental and contemporary materials, including using familiar ones in unconventional ways. For instance, it includes ten bronze sculptures that depict images from the Great Depression and World War II, water features, and twenty-one inscriptions of the words of Roosevelt carved into the granite walls.
Explain the content and meaning of the FDR memorial, noting the signs and symbols used to convey the meaning. 100
The FDR memorial has water features and rooms, primarily built of red South Dakota granite and stone to illustrate the upheaval and fracture of those times. Additionally, each of the rooms represents various aspects of the terms of office of Franklin, with the first one demonstrating his first term where he launched the New Deal with a set of policies intended to get the country out of the Depression. The artist commemorates this using bronze to symbolize the relief of the inauguration of Franklin. The second room emphasizes the Depression and entails two statues, one called Breadline, which depicts a row of men who are out of work and waiting in a soup-kitchen line as a reminder of the challenges of this time. The other is Fireside Chat, which illustrates a man on a chair leaning into his radio to signify how FDR would host a public broadcast intended to reassure the public. The centerpiece of the third room is a waterfall pouring over broken boulders, thus symbolizing the destruction caused by World War II. The statue of FDR in a wheelchair at the entrance demonstrates his efforts to hide his disability in public.
Explain your aesthetic experience and perception of the memorial as a viewer/ audience. 50
The memorial offers an in-depth experience and insight into the challenges that faced the longest-serving American president. I found the water features visually appealing and would regularly pause to marvel at their beauty as I moved from the roaring artificial waterfall to the calm waters of the basin. Additionally, the trees, figurative sculptures, and massive walls made me pause and backtrack track through the entire memorial from back to front as I enjoyed the bold and defying aesthetics of each of the features.
Compare the FDR memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for material, style, purpose, meaning, and aesthetic experience. 100
Based on style and purpose, both Vietnam Veterans Memorial and FDR Memorial are commemorative landscapes created using modernist designs by the architectures. The former entails long black granite walls with names of service members, thus a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of the soldiers that fought during the Vietnam War, while the latter commemorates the circumstances surrounding the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. On the other hand, Vietnam Veterans Memorial signifies the women and men that sacrificed their lives during the Vietnam War and is a minimal plan with the wall and a traditional statue of three servicemen with a flag at its entrance. In contrast, the FDR memorial maximizes the use of sculptures, waterfalls, trees, and bronze statues that each symbolize different aspects of the term of President Franklin. Based on aesthetics, Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a stunning piece of art where an individual can walk into each section of the wall that contains hundreds of names providing an inspiring historical moment while FDR, through its impressive waterfalls, trees, and sculptures, makes it intriguing and breathtaking to go through the fur rooms. Therefore, each of these monuments offered a unique insight into the historical aspects of America that has been transformed into art.