Washington DC

The National Capital Planning Commission and The Commission of Fine Arts approved the site location for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. December 1999. The King Memorial site is a four-acre plot on the north east corner of the Tidal Basin within the precinct of the Jefferson Memorial and north of the memorial to President Roosevelt.

This memorial is not designed to be experienced in a single way with one single message, but rather it is to have a broad accessibility, appealing to all of the senses with diverse, repetitive and overlapping themes. The introduction of an arcing berm into the horizontal arrangement of the site creates an array of spaces suitable for movement, viewing, sitting, meeting, speaking and congregating in large and small groups. The use of water creates different moods, from calm and quiet wellsprings to glistening sheets, to rushing foment.