Bookstore at King memorial criticized
As the project's cost rises, opponents say the National Mall is already overcrowded.
WASHINGTON - The group building the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial needs more money to pay for a bookstore that is being added over the objections of some, and for rising construction costs as workers begin preparing the site on the National Mall, organizers said yesterday.
The group is looking to raise $20 million more for $120 million total. The money also is needed to pay for security enhancements required by the National Park Service and for restrooms in the same building as the bookstore, organizers said.
Meanwhile, Verizon Communications is relocating several communication lines beneath the proposed site, on the bank of the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The site preparation is the beginning of "the first major memorial to honor a man of peace and person of color on the National Mall," Harry Johnson, president of the memorial foundation, said in a statement.
But some object to the bookstore, saying the Mall is becoming overcrowded.
"The Park Service needs restrooms, and this is how they're getting them," said Judy Scott Feldman, chairman of the nonprofit National Coalition to Save Our Mall.
She said the ballooning scope of the King memorial was similar to a visitor center that will be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
"We are detracting and really desecrating the power of these monuments by adding retail," Feldman said.
The Park Service says the King memorial site's footprint has actually gotten smaller since a previous design was reviewed in 2005.
Further construction must wait until two powerful commissions that oversee the capital's architecture approve the design.
The approval timing is critical, because congressional permission for the memorial expires in November. If construction has not begun by then, the foundation may have to go back to Congress for an extension.
Organizers have said they hope to complete the memorial in 2010, after originally planning it for 2009.
Surrounded by cherry trees, the memorial is to feature a 28-foot "Stone of Hope" granite sculpture of the civil-rights leader, a waterside plaza, and celebrated quotes by King engraved in stone walls.
It would be the first major tribute to the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner outside Atlanta, where he was born in 1929.
Also yesterday, the group announced a $3 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $1 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The announcements come as the project closes in on its initial $100 million fund-raising goal, with $98.8 million collected so for.