America is chock-full of World War I memorials, so why build another one?

Charles Birnbaum, head of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, is working to preserve the Friedberg design and is thus frustrated that all of the memorial finalists call for its demolition. He considers the park an “early and unique example of the origins of post-modernist design in Washington.” Given the possibility of a historic designation, Birnbaum says, going forward with any of the five designs would be “putting the cart before the horse.”