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MONUMENTAL LANDSCAPES |
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THE LIBERTY MEMORIAL OF KANSAS CITY
The Liberty Memorial is an impressive example of the assemblage of motivations, money, and materials. It is also a failure.
Situated on a scenic ridge overlooking downtown Kansas City, Missouri in Penn Valley Park, the memorial is dedicated to the men and women who sacrificed their lives during World War I. As R.A. Long, founding president of the Liberty Memorial Association put it, the complex was intended as "a living expression for all time of the gratitude of a grateful people to those who offered and gave their lives in defense of liberty and our country" (14).
A fund-raising drive in 1919 generated over $2.5 million from local and national contributors to the project. This money and additional funds were then used to create a complex made up of several structures including a 217-foot Memorial Tower, two museum buildings, a 5200 square-foot frieze, courtyards, stairways, and a pair of stone sphinxes. Construction began in 1923 and was completed in 1926. Deterioration of the memorial has been countered in recent years by the raising of over $45 million through a special local sales tax levy and several major grants from the State of Missouri. Many parts of the complex have been newly renovated or restored (14, 15).
Yet, for all of the noble motivations, efforts, and dollars that have gone into the Liberty Memorial over the span of over 80 years, it outwardly yields very little in its intended emotion or message.
Other war-related monuments, ranging from the innovative and heartbreaking Vietnam War Memorial in Washington to the modest, conventional statues of Civil War soldiers outside of the county courthouses across the South, are far more effective than this one in Kansas City for one main reason: They clearly and outwardly emphasize the people who put their lives on the line to defend their ideals.
The Vietnam memorial is simply a relentless series of tens of thousands of names on tablets that can be seen and touched along a landscaped sidewalk. The typical Civil War statue shows a realistic, lifesize image of a particular hero and tablets etched with the names of the individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice. Immediately, these statues make a personal connection. But, in Kansas City, the complex is faceless, impersonal, tomblike. Who fought? Who died? And why? From its exterior, a newcomer would be hard-pressed to come up with confident answers to such questions. The architecture does little to convey any specific information.
Part of the problem may stem from its unempathetic design. Kansas City's memorial is sterile, almost cold. World War I -- the subject of this site -- was by all accounts incredibly bloody and brutal. It was about muddy trenches in western Europe that were filled with poorly equipped soldiers, many of whom were sick or injured. And, yet, none of that is shown or reflected here. It's orderly and symmetrical. With its light, sandy colors and sphinxes, it seems like a re-creation of a desert mausoleum built for long-forgotten ancient Egyptian royalty. Altogether, it is an example of architecture that is emotionally disconnected to its subject or the original experience it is memorializing.
Not surprisingly perhaps, the Liberty Memorial is not a particularly famous or popular attraction in Kansas City. Even on a nice weekend afternoon in early June, when this photograph was taken, only a handful of visitors were there. Even the comprehensive American Automobile Association's Tourbook has left out Liberty Memorial in its listings of Kansas City's tourist attractions (16).
While little can be done to change this site, perhaps it can teach us what not to do. When it comes to the time when we need to convey what it is we want future generations to remember about us through our monuments, we must not forget to design in our emotions.
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