Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Earns 2021 AGC Build America Award

April 20, 2021

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Earns 2021 AGC Build America Award

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) has recognized the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial as the winner of its 2021 Construction Risk Partners Build America Award in the Building New ($10 million to $75 million) category. 

Designed by Gehry Partners, LLP / AECOM, A Joint Venture, the project transformed a four-acre Washington, DC, site into the first national presidential memorial of the 21st century. The memorial honors Eisenhower’s contributions to the United States as the 34th President and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II.  

Located south of the National Mall, the memorial features extensive landscaping and hardscaping with large-scale statuaries and inscribed stone blocks. In addition, a series of monumental columns support a 450-foot-long, woven metal tapestry by artist Thomas Osinski, which features a peacetime scene of the Normandy coastline.

Among the most challenging aspects of the project was construction of its 80-foot-tall,9-foot-diameter concrete columns. The end columns of this system are composed of solid concrete to support the weight of the tapestry’s 604 unique panels.

Clark Construction completed the project, which also includes a building that houses a bookstore, National Park Service Ranger contact station, public restrooms, and support facilities for the memorial’s operation and maintenance, in 2019 and the Memorial officially opened to the public in September 2020.

The Build America Awards honor the nation’s most impressive construction projects ranging across the building, highway and transportation, utility infrastructure, and federal and heavy divisions. A panel of judges representing a cross-section of the construction industry evaluated projects on criteria including state-of-the-art advancement, project management, innovation in construction techniques or materials, safety record, client service, community relations, environmental sensitivity, and partnering excellence.

The Build America award will be presented to the Eisenhower Memorial project team during AGC’s Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida, this September, marking the 28th time Clark’s work has earned this prestigious award.