Photo © Weiss/Manfredi

Women's Memorial and Education Center

Description

The winning design of a national competition, The Women's Memorial and Education Center celebrates and honors the more than two million women who have served in the defense of the United States. The project creates a new gateway to Arlington National Cemetery and a memorial at a site defined by an historic hemicycle retaining wall.

Constructed, 1997

#Architecture

#Visitor Center

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The memorial recasts an historic hemicyclic retaining wall, designed by McKim, Mead & White, as a new gateway to Arlington National Cemetery.

The design for the memorial pierces the formerly blank niches of the hemicycle’s granite retaining wall, a barrier between the cemetery and the city that was dedicated in 1932 but never fully completed.

These carved openings lead to glass-enclosed stairways that ascend to an upper terrace which offers views to the cemetery above, the gallery below, and the city beyond.

Passage through the historic retaining wall mediates the change in grade along one of Washington’s important monumental axes while serving as a metaphor for the barriers women have faced in their efforts to serve their country.

An excavated arc of space between the hemicycle and the cemetery forms a commemorative gallery.

This space is defined by concrete counterforts and a new marble wall, concentric with the original structure.

The marble wall opens to exhibition spaces, a theater, the hall of honor, and a computer register in which visitors can learn more about the women who served and their stories.

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Exploded Axonometric Diagram

Circulation Diagram

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