Pershing Park is a memorial park and open space sitting adjacent to the famous Willard hotel along Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street one block from the White House in Washington DC.  The park contains a memorial to General John J. Pershing, General of the Armies and commanding general of US Forces in the First World War.  Designed by M Paul Friedberg, the park previously had a central water feature used for ice skating in winter, but a shift in recreational use and a lack of maintenance funding has led to the closure of the water feature and less use of the park.  The project is to redesign of the entire park  in accordance with National Park Service Guidelines to increase use, safety and decrease maintenance costs.

 

The design maximizes the historical significance of the park by moving the Pershing memorial into an interior WWI memorial/museum.  The green roof of the memorial provides a perfect location for viewing the area night or day, capitalizing on the site’s location at the crux of circulation among the Capitol Building, White House and Washington Monument. Increased green space and recreational opportunity, along with gathering space is intended to bring cohesiveness to the high-end neighborhood.