Trump’s 250-Foot Arch Clears Federal Design Review Despite Widespread Opposition
A proposed monument for Memorial Circle in Washington, DC, has moved one step closer to reality after the US Commission of Fine Arts approved the project on Thursday, May 21, even as public comments ran overwhelmingly against it. A staff report said opposition to the arch was 99.5% unfavorable, yet the commission voted to grant final approval after a meeting that left several design questions unresolved.
The structure, backed by Donald Trump, is planned to rise 250 feet near the main entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. That location has intensified criticism from preservation advocates and local residents, who have questioned both the monument’s scale and its symbolism so close to one of the country’s most solemn military sites. The design still lacks important details, including additional sculptures and reliefs intended for the arch’s niches.
The commission’s earlier review had recommended removing gold statuary from the top of the arch, which would have reduced its height from 250 feet to 166 feet. Trump rejected that suggestion, according to Nicolas Charbonneau, a principal at Harrison Design, the architecture firm working on the project. The updated version also drops an eight-foot platform, gold lions on plinths, and a proposed tunnel for visitors, replacing that approach with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings across the busy circle.
Rodney Mims Cook, Jr, the commission’s chairman, introduced the motion for final approval, which passed with four commissioners present. Mary Anne Carter, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, attended the first portion of the meeting but did not return after a break before the vote.
During the hearing, Carter was the only panelist to press for further restraint, comparing the proposed ornament to the plain white stone markers at Arlington Cemetery, where both of her parents are buried. She urged the architects to remember how simple those gravestones are to the south of the site.
Charbonneau said the blank wall surfaces are intended to receive a series of narrative sculptures, though he could not say when the remaining details would be ready. Critics, including preservation groups and Washington residents, have also raised concerns about the absence of Congressional approval, pending lawsuits, and Federal Aviation Administration review.
For now, the arch remains a project defined as much by its unresolved details as by its scale. Its final appearance may still change, but the political and cultural arguments surrounding it are already firmly in place.
