FDR Memorial Foundation 25th Anniversary Event: A Landscape of Memory: Art and Design at the FDR Memorial and the Art of a Seamless Collaboration
Left to right - Steven Koch, Laurie Olin, Noriko Fujinami, Charles Birnbaum.
Helena Berger, chair of the FDR Memorial Foundation (formerly the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee), opened the event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the FDR Memorial’s completion and the addition of the FDR wheelchair statue. She highlighted the Foundation’s mission to preserve the 7.5 acre Memorial through charitable donations, recent restoration work, and an upcoming study on a malfunctioning fountain. The National Park Service stewards the site, but relies on cooperating organizations for critical support.
Berger recognized major donors, including the Gordon and Llura Gund Foundation, Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, and Dr. Lucy R. Waletzky as Diamond sponsors, and Jane Deland in honor of Mike Deland and as a Platinum sponsor. She thanked staff and Foundation co-founder Mary Dolan for their contributions.
Charles Birnbaum, moderator and president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, introduced the panel. He shared personal reflections on Larry Halprin, the Memorial’s landscape architect, emphasizing Halprin’s commitment to accessibility and experiential equivalency. Birnbaum contextualized Halprin’s design philosophy, rooted in storytelling, collaboration, and integration with the L’Enfant Plan, and showed early concepts that influenced the Memorial’s evolution.
Noriko Fujinami, administrator of Robert Graham’s estate, detailed the Memorial’s artistic components. Halprin selected four sculptors—Leonard Baskin, Neil Estern, Robert Graham, and George Segal—after a 1977 artist selection process. The Memorial was dedicated in 1997 after 23 years of development. A controversial addition—the FDR wheelchair statue—was mandated by Congress in 1997 following advocacy by people with disabilities. Senator Daniel Inouye introduced the resolution just one day before the dedication. Robert Graham initially resisted the commission but ultimately created the statue, installed in 2001 as a prologue, acknowledging FDR’s disability prior to his presidency.
The Memorial is divided into four outdoor rooms representing FDR’s terms: Room One features the inauguration and the quote “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; Room Two depicts the Great Depression with Segal’s sculptures and Graham’s Braille-inscribed reliefs; Room Three addresses WWII with a chaotic waterfall and FDR’s quote “I hate war”; and Room Four, with a still pool and Baskin’s funeral cortège relief, concludes with Eleanor Roosevelt’s statue.
Steve Koch, a former designer on the project and co-founder of the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, discussed Halprin’s concept of multiplicity—using multiple spaces, art forms, and narratives to reflect FDR’s complex legacy. He emphasized the participatory Taking Part workshop process, which brought artists together and shaped the Memorial’s collaborative design. Halprin believed no single element should dominate, stating, “The total experience is the Memorial.”
Laurie Olin recounted the creation of the Prologue and wheelchair statue. Just before the 1997 dedication, heeding the call from disabled advocates, President Clinton called for legislation to be passed to show visible recognition of FDR’s disability. The National Park Service tasked its Associate Regional Director, John Parsons, with forming a blue ribbon committee to decide on what the representation would be and where it would be placed. The committee was led by Lawrence Halprin and included historian Holly Robinson, advocates Hugh Gallagher and Michael Deland, architect Karl Komatsu, family representative James Roosevelt, and landscape architect Laurie Olin. Using Halprin’s Taking Part method, the committee decided the statue should precede the Memorial, be at human scale. Another committee of scholars suggested the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “Franklin's illness gave him strength and courage... infinite patience and never ending persistence.” The statue was installed in 2001 along with the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt within the new Prologue room.
In a panel discussion, speakers reflected on Halprin’s leadership, his integration of art and landscape, and the Memorial’s return to figurative sculpture and narrative after modernist abstraction. They noted the Memorial’s high maintenance needs—fountains, inscriptions, landscaping—and stressed the importance of interpretive education, multilingual materials, and engaging school groups. The Foundation’s role in preserving both the physical site and the enduring messages of FDR’s leadership in times of crisis was underscored as vital for future generations.
Watch the Youtube video here: https://youtu.be/hURDIUx7X6c?si=3Ct7PM36qa6CGNhX
Read the transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kmr1WgLZSBhcDAP6P83n0VqOX0FSRRtW/view?usp=sharing