The Battle of Pershing Park

In 2016, months after the Weishaar-Howard design prevailed in the memorial competition, Pershing Park was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in a report commissioned by the National Park Service. This means the Centennial Commission could face litigation over the memorial, and a leading candidate for bringing suit would be the Washington-based Cultural Landscape Foundation, a 20-year-old organization founded and directed by Charles A. Birnbaum, a vocal opponent of the Centennial Commission’s sculpture-wall concept. Birnbaum formulated guidelines for landscape preservation years ago as coordinator of the NPS’s Cultural Landscape Initiative.