On Friday President Donald Trump said his administration had selected West Potomac Park as the site for his proposed “National Garden of American Heroes,” an outdoor sculpture park meant to play home to statues of 250 Americans of note.
As reported by the Washington Post, the announcement raised questions as to whether congressional approval would be required. “West Potomac Park, which sits along the Potomac River near the Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, is among the most tightly controlled federal lands in the District of Columbia,” the Post reported. “Large portions fall within the ‘reserve’ area governed by the Commemorative Works Act, in which any new memorial project would probably require congressional approval as well as review by federal planning bodies. White House officials have previously said they will follow ‘all legal requirements and approvals’ for the planned garden but have not specified whether that includes obtaining congressional approval.”
The law stipulates that commemorative cannot be authorized until after the 25th anniversary of an event or death being memorialized—a problem for proposed sculptures of Kobe Bryant, Whitney Houston, and Antonin Scalia, all of whom died fewer than 25 years ago.
The Post also reported, citing sources who chose to remain anonymous to discuss plans not yet disclosed, that the administration has has chosen architect Michael Curtis as the garden’s lead designer, in addition to a team that includes the architects Michael Franck and CJ Howard as well as sculptor Brian Kramer and urban planner Dhiru Thadani. None of them responded to the Post’s queries about their purported selection.
