Finding a Place in History: Joseph Weishaar on His Winning WWI Memorial Desi

由专筑网杨帆，Vigo编译

上周，建筑师 Joseph Weishaar和雕塑家Sabin Howard 赢得一战纪念公园的设计竞赛，这次竞赛是为纪念一战一百周年的华盛顿区潘兴公园重新进行改造设计。Weishaar是芝加哥公司Brininstool + Lynch的一名25岁的建筑师，设计的关键是使公园和纪念形成一个连贯的整体元素；他的设计，“牺牲的重量”，围绕一片凸起的草坪，在三面设立了由Howard设计的雕塑纪念墙。ArchDaily有机会向Weishaar了解更多有关他的获奖设计，他对公园评价的回应，并作为年轻建筑师对于未来的畅想。

Last week, the World War I Centennial Commission announced architect Joseph Weishaar and sculptor Sabin Howard as the winners of the WWI Memorial Competition held to redesign Washington, DC’s Pershing Park for the 100th anniversary of the conflict. For Weishaar, a 25-year-old project architect at Chicago firm Brininstool + Lynch, the key to the design was to integrate elements of both a park and a memorial into a cohesive whole; his design, "The Weight of Sacrifice," incorporates a raised lawn surrounded on three sides by memorial walls with sculptures designed by Howard. ArchDaily was given the opportunity to sit down with Weishaar to learn more about his winning memorial design, his response to the park’s critique, and what the future could hold for the young architect.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Patrick Lynch: 该项目并不像一个典型的纪念碑设计方案，更像是一座更大的公园的设计。你是如何理解竞赛的要求的，这其中你觉得最重要的方面是什么？

Joseph Weishaar: 最终的设计成果兼具公园与纪念碑的特性，同时也充满了合二为一的魅力。世界上对于纪念公园的先例着实不多。这无疑是最大的挑战。我认为在最后很多设计都是分开的，会分别针对纪念碑部分或围绕它的公园部分。所以在公园的设置中并没有那么多奏效的纪念元素存在。我可以从350个中提取出20个来。我认为将公园与纪念综合起来而不是分离。公园真的是建立在纪念元素基础上的，所以如果你一开始抽离纪念元素，公园空间也会随之减少。弄清楚如何设计一个能与建筑融为一体的公园是我最大的挑战。

Patrick Lynch: Unlike a typical monument as an object, this project seemed to inspire monuments integrated into a larger park design. How did you interpret the prompt for the competition and what aspect of it did you find most important?
Joseph Weishaar: It was a big part of the prompt that whatever the final design was, it had to function both as a park and as a memorial and they were really interested early on in doing a hybrid of the two. And there’s really not that much precedent out there in the world for a park-monument. So that was definitely the biggest challenge coming into this. I think a lot of the designs in the end still kind of separated where they had a monument portion and a park surrounding it, or they focused on one or the other. So there weren’t that many that actually worked memorial elements into a park-like setting. I could pull maybe 20 of them out of the 350. I think it was important to create a good synthesis of park and monument to the point where you couldn’t really separate the two. The park is really built out of the memorial elements, so if you start pulling the memorial elements away then suddenly there’s not as much park space. Figuring out how to make a park that could blend with the architecture was really my biggest challenge.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

PL: 解释一下你的设计意图——是什么启发了你把公园从地面抬升？

JW：场地中心是下沉的，这也是它吸引很多70后、80后的重要原因。很多公园设计，以洛克菲勒大厦为例，凹陷的空间被认为是明智的，因为它使人们从混沌的世界中抽离出来，不用再顾及混乱的交通。从那时起，人们从城市研究和心理实验中发现，人们实际上更喜欢一种看到和被看到的关系，这就是他们在城市公共空间中最舒适的互动方式。因此，我在设计中将公园抬升，使人们可以有更好的视线交流。这是最有效的整体规划和景观规划。

PL: Explain your design intentions - what inspired you to lift the park up off the ground?
JW: The site as-is is really sunken in the center, and that was its attraction back in the 70s, 80s. A lot of park designs, like Rockefeller Center for example, feature sunken spaces that were thought to be really smart because they separated people from the chaos of the world so that, suddenly, you weren’t in the confusion of traffic. What people have found since then in urban studies and psychology experiments is that people actually prefer to see and be seen, and that’s how they feel most comfortable interacting in a public urban space. So for my design I wanted to raise up that center so that people can see into the park, and see back out. That was the biggest generator of the overall plan and landscaping plan.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

PL: 从哪里看出你的设计是纪念一战，而不是为其他历史事件？

JW: 这包括几个方面。我们设计的青铜浮雕墙，结合了战争时期的文本与图像。南北面的墙壁上充斥着战前的语录、战争期间士兵们的日记和笔记以及战争之后的复苏。公园东面墙上的浮雕图像也是如此。它们都记述了美国从一个与世隔绝的国家，通过不断强化，最后屹立于世界之林的转变。但是，这个故事是通过人们的经验和这些人的人文表达来体现的。这在很大程度上印证了纪念一战的主题。
另外一个非常感性的特殊设计是通过浮雕人物的特征与抽象人物相对应。这是对那段时期的一个再现。第三点我们采用那个时代流行的青铜作为主要材料，而不是使用战后出现的新材料如不锈钢或更多的合成材料。

PL: What makes your design a World War I memorial, as opposed to a memorial for another historical event?
JW: There’s a couple things going on. What we have are the bronze relief walls that feature a combination of text and imagery from the war. The North and South walls are filled with quotations from people before the war, journals and notebooks of soldiers during the war, and then recovery after the war. The same thing is going on with the relief image on the east wall of the park. It is all about the transition of the US from being an isolationist nation, all the way through stepping up to become a power on the world stage. But that story is told through people’s experiences and the humanistic expressions of those figures. That in a big way makes it a World War I memorial.
The other thing is that we’ve been very sympathetic toward a classical design in that the reliefs feature humanistic figures as opposed to abstract figures. That was something seen during that time period. The third thing is the use of bronze as a primary material because of its prevalence during that era, rather than using a newer material like stainless steel or a more synthetic material made by a process that was invented after the war.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

PL：你在什么阶段接触 Sabin Howard的？他的哪方面工作适于你的设计？

JW：他是在我的设计进入候选范围后介入的。我已经提出与救济小组合作，但经过讨论，委员会认为“这是很棒的项目，但你需要接触一些真正懂雕塑的人，至少可以帮助你推敲方案的可能性，如果这个量太多，那它应该如何改进”，因为原来我设计了有324英尺的雕塑。所以我说，“好的，我会去找一个雕塑家。”之后我真的在网站上搜索美国的雕塑家，我进入了一个有关全国雕塑家的网站，并开始点击他们已完成的作品。在看到Sabin的作品前我已经看过了100多个作品。我从Sabin的作品中看到了高水平的技艺和真正激情的过程，而且它的形态，如果我自己能做雕塑，那也是我想要呈现的样子。这是他吸引我很重要的一点。等我真正与他结交，他已经成为该国的一个顶级的古典雕刻家，所以他非常适合。

PL: At what stage did you contact Sabin Howard, and what aspects of his work made it the right fit for your design?
JW: He came into play after I made it onto the shortlist, stage 2. I had already come up with the idea of putting relief panels together but the commission, through our meetings and reviews, said, “this is great, but you need to contact someone who knows something about sculpture, at least to help you get a sense of if this is too much and what it would take.” Because originally, I had planned for 324 feet of sculpture. So I said, “OK, good point, I’ll find a sculptor somewhere.” And so I literally just googled “Sculptor United States” and came across the national sculpture group’s website and started clicking through sculptors they had listed there. I went through about 100 before I came to Sabin’s work. What I saw in Sabin’s work was, first of all, a high level of craft, and really a passion for process - but also it looked like, if I could have done the sculptures myself, what I would have wanted to do. And so that was a big draw to him. And once I got to know him, he ended up being one of the top classical sculptors in the country, so it worked out well.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

PL：有评论说你的设计与原设计潘兴公园比较相似。你是有意遵循原设计，还是受项目和周边环境的影响而如此？

JW：两者都有。我必须说现有的潘兴公园存在着很深远的影响。上周我一直试图向人们传达潘兴公园实际上是一个很好的公园，如果你像我参加这个竞赛一样深入得了解这个公园，你会发现有些原来的设计真的很好，那些东西不应该就此失去。特别是现有的潘兴纪念像。在公园北边的长凳区，有着能看到宾夕法尼亚大道到国会大厦风景的最好视角。所以对我来说这些是非常重要的，不能摆脱这些东西。我知道有所保留会扮演的重要作用，以及人们会怎么看待这个公园。所以，从很早的时候，我尽可能多得保留这些元素，而不是完全推翻。

PL: It has been mentioned that your design bears similarities to the the original design for Pershing Park. Did you intentionally draw from the park's design, or was it a product of the program and site context?
JW: It’s a little bit of both. I would say there is a heavy, heavy influence from the existing Pershing Park. Something that I’ve been trying to communicate to people throughout the last week of talking through it is that Pershing Park is actually a really nice park, and if you get into studying the plans as much as I have through this competition, there are things that work really well in the original design, and things that I didn’t think the park should lose. Especially around the existing Pershing Memorial. The north side of the park, where the bench seating is - that’s one of the best views down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. So for me it was very important not to get rid of those things. And, the thing is, I knew preservation was going to play a big part in the decision and how people saw this park. So from very early on, instead of just taking the site and completely wiping it clean, I tried to pick up as many elements as I could to be saved, and eliminate the things that didn’t work.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

在你这个年纪赢得一场这么大规模的比赛是前所未有的挑战，但也有一个先例--设计越战老兵纪念碑的林马娅。那个项目结束了她整个职业生涯的基调，包括大规模的土地艺术。你认为赢得这场比赛对你的事业有何影响？你未来想要追求什么样的项目类型？

JW：我希望不会。因为我想有一定的灵活性。我认为阻碍了她的因素是，她既是一个艺术家，也是一个建筑师，她在那个时候还没有明确的方向。而对我来说，我就是一名建筑师。所以我希望不会遇到任何绊脚石，能够一直前进，设计新的项目。希望它成为我职业生涯的起点，而不是至高点。

我确实在十月后期见到了她。她告诉我要保持良好的幽默感，并且说：“我很高兴这次是你，而不是我。”她真的很好，我希望我可以再次接触到她，现在我已经做到了这一步，试图找到缓解紧张和压力以及日后生活的方法。

PL: Winning a competition of this scale at your age is something that hasn’t been done often before, but there is one obvious precedent - Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. That project ended up setting the tone for her entire career that now includes large scale land art. How do you think winning this competition will affect your career and the types of projects you will want to pursue in the future?
JW: I hope it doesn’t, as I like to say. Because I want to have some flexibility. I think the thing that hampered Maya a little bit is that she was really torn between being an artist and being an architect, and she wasn’t sure which one she wanted at that time in her life. Whereas at this point in my life, I am full architect - that’s where I want to go. So I’m hoping I don’t run into any sort of stumbling period or search for where I want to go and instead can just move on and take new projects. Hopefully it becomes a launching point for my career rather than the thing that grounds it and becomes the high point.
I actually got to meet Maya back in October (after competition finalists had been named). She told me to have a good sense of humor and said, “I’m glad it’s you and not me again.” She was really nice, and I’m hoping I can get in contact with her again now that I’ve made it to this stage to try to figure out how to deal with the stress and the pressure and life after.

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

Courtesy of The World War I Centennial Commission

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