Witold Rybczynski: The JFK memorial and the woes of "interpretive centers"

In the wake of 9/11, with all its discussions of memorials, I found myself wanting to revisit another memorial of a violent event that also tore the social fabric of this country. The John F. Kennedy Memorial in Dallas is one block east of Dealey Plaza, where the 1963 assassination took place. The design, by Philip Johnson, is simple, an open-air room formed by massive concrete walls that appear to float above the ground. Within, a granite slab bears the name of the president. It is all, sad to say, poorly done. Painted precast concrete is hardly a noble material, and the blank surfaces are relieved by rows of roundels that make the walls look like mammoth Lego blocks. The shiny granite slab is black, but being square and low it looks more like a coffee table than a funerary marker. Kennedy was not a notable patron of architecture, but he deserved better than this.

The Kennedy Memorial in Dallas marks a particular place where an event took place—as opposed to the British JFK Memorial, say, which honors only the memory of the slain president, albeit in a prominent location: Runnymede, the site of the Magna Carta covenant. Marking places and remembering people and events are the traditional roles of memorials, but there is another function, increasingly common today: interpretation. Interpretive centers not only commemorate but also remind (in case we've forgotten) and explain (in case we've got the story wrong). It used to be enough to bow one's head and mourn. Now we must be educated, too. Education is a fine thing, but all this predigested information invariably overwhelms the experience of seeing the thing itself....