Evans, Jocelyn J., and Kyrsten B. York. “How the Mall Means: An Analysis of the National Mall as a Cohesively Built Environment.” Perspectives on Political Science 42.3 (2013): 117-130. Print.
When the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was built, which took place on August 28, 2011, was also the same day of the forty eighth anniversary of the March on Washington of 1963. The Memorial in Atlanta, Georgia, gives information on Martin’s leadership through his letters, speeches, and writings, even sculptures on display there. It shows his struggle as an African American man fighting for what he believed was right. His statue also shows this role in African Americans civil rights. According to the National Parks Service, “the site expresses through solid granite the cementation of MLK’s leadership “in the tapestry of the American experience. Its also known to be an expression of love and tolerance. In Atlanta and mostly likely everywhere, MLK is a symbol and is recognized worldwide of the journey he went through to fight for civil rights for people everywhere.
“The First Lincoln Memorial – Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service).” National Park Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.
Built where many believe the Lincoln cabin originally stood, the Memorial Building at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park was constructed between 1909 and 1911 in an effort by the Lincoln Farm Association to commemorate the life and accomplishments of the sixteenth President of the United States and to protect his “birth cabin.” The Pope’s design of the building included many symbols related to Abraham Lincoln, including fifty-six steps leading up to the building to represent the fifty-six years of Lincoln’s life. Sixteen windows in the building and sixteen rosettes on the interior ceiling are there to remind visitors that Lincoln was the sixteenth president. In 1906 the Lincoln Farm Association began a fund raising campaign for the project in which over 100,000 Americans donated nearly $350,000. The Norcross Brothers Construction Company of Worcester, Massachusetts won the contract for constructing the Memorial Building in 1907 with a bid of $237,101 and construction began on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, with the laying of the cornerstone by President Theodore Roosevelt.Today the Memorial Building continues to fulfill its mission by housing and protecting the symbolic birth cabin of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. Over 200,000 people a year come to Lincoln’s birthplace to view the Memorial Building and the symbolic birth cabin contained within.
“The Jefferson Memorial | Washington.org.” Washington.org – Official Tourism Site of Washington DC. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.
The dome-shaped Jefferson Memorial is an iconic American structure. It also mirrors the University of Virginia rotunda, a structure designed by Jefferson himself. The memorial is located in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River Tidal Basin, at the southern end of the National Mall. The interior of the memorial contains a 19-foot statue of Thomas Jefferson, and excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, which he authored, can be found on the southwest interior wall. The memorial is noted for its circular marble steps, portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns and a shallow dome. The National Park Service estimates that more than two million people visit the Jefferson Memorial each year. The memorial honors third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s Founding Fathers as well as the drafter of the Declaration of Independence and adviser to the Constitution. The interior of the Memorial, are five quotations taken from Jefferson’s writings that illustrate the principles to which he dedicated his life. Thomas Jefferson was, without a doubt, one of America’s most eclectic Presidents, wearing the hats of a writer, architect, political philosopher, scientist, and inventor, the Revolution, and America’s formative years might not have been possible without his guidance. Much later President John F. Kennedy was right when he told a group of Nobel Prize winners in 1962 that they were the most extraordinary collection of talent and knowledge that had ever dined at the White House, “except Thomas Jefferson, when he dined alone.” The Jefferson Memorial, with its wise quotes from the President, almost perfect symmetry, and classical beauty, truly immortalizes the 3rd President, and has served too many, since 1939, as a guide for what he might do when faced with any given situation.
I chose these sources because they talk about how monuments affect the people around them and also their surrounds. Which also has to do with my built environment description