page_title: Women in Military Service for America Memorial
section_title: Second fund-raising round
hierarchical_section_title: Women in Military Service for America Memorial / Building the Women in Military Service for America Memorial / Second fund-raising round
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking southwest across the plaza of the Hemicycle at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The fountain is located in the central apse of the Hemicycle. (The memorial itself is behind the Hemicycle, buried behind the hill.) A low granite-lined rill guides the water down to the central reflecting pool. The reflecting pool is lined with black granite. The plaza itself is made of light grey cobblestone.
context_page_description: The Women in Military Service for America Memorial is a memorial established by the U.S. federal government which honors women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The memorial is located at the western end of Memorial Avenue at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The structure in which the memorial is housed was originally known as the Hemicycle, and built in 1932 to be a ceremonial entrance to the cemetery. It never served this purpose, and was in disrepair by 1986. Congress approved the WIMSA memorial in 1985, and the Hemicycle approved as the site for the memorial in 1988. An open design competition was won by New York City architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. Their original design was leaked to the public, and caused significant controversy. Two years of fund-raising and design revision followed. A revised preliminary design was approved in July 1992, and the final design in March 1995. Ground was broken for the memorial in June 1995, and the structure dedicated on October 18, 1997.
  The memorial is notable for its successful mixing of Neoclassical and Modern architecture.
context_section_description: By August 1992, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation still had only $1 million with which to build the memorial. To boost the memorial's visibility, First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Barbara Bush both agreed to be honorary chairs of the foundation.
  In June 1993, the WMSAMF began a second fund-raising campaign, this one involving the sale of commemorative coins. Since 1982, the United States Mint had been authorized to manufacture these coins, but congressional authorization was needed first. Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Harris Wofford and Representative Patrick J. Kennedy introduced legislation to authorize the coin in June. The legislation authorized a $1 silver and $5 gold coin, with the Mint to be repaid for the cost of producing the coins. This legislation (Public Law 103-186) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in mid-December 1993. The coins sold for $31 each, of which $10 went to the memorial foundation. More than half the 500,000 coins were sold by March 1995. Although the Mint had agreed to stop selling the coins on April 30, 1995, the agency agreed to allow sales to continue until July 15, since sales for all 1994 commemorative coins were the lowest since the program began in 1982. By June 1996, coin sales raised $2.7 million for the memorial.
  The memorial's authorization ran out again on November 6, 1993. The memorial foundation asked Congress to give it a three-year extension. By now, the memorial had raised $1.5 million for construction, but spent $2 million on building its computerized database of the names of women who served in the U.S. military, on site work, and memorial design. The National Park Service supported the extension, arguing that the women veterans' memorial made an important contribution to the nation and that the recession made fund-raising difficult. The extension legislation was passed, and signed into law.
  To boost the memorial's chances, Vaught split the project in two. Vaught realized that rehabilitation of the Hemicycle was a different project from memorial construction. Fund-raising for the preservation project might be avoided, she argued, if preservation grants were sought from federal agencies. So in November 1993, grant-seeking by WMSAMF began. By February 1994, the foundation had secured a $9.5 million grant from the U.S. Air Force to repair and restore the Hemicycle.
  In July 1994, WMSAMF established a goal of raising $2 million by April 1995. This would give the memorial $4 million, so that groundbreaking could occur even if the total amount of funds needed for the memorial had not yet been collected. Another half million dollars had been raised since February, including $10,000 to $20,000 donations from the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, and Tennessee.
  With reauthorization of the memorial complete and fundraising moving again, WMSAMF, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Department of the Army signed a memorandum of understanding setting out procedures and rules for the memorial foundation and its contractors to follow as construction moved forward. This agreement was finalized in late 1994.
  WMSAMF presented the memorial design to the CFA and NCPC again in October 1994. In response to previous CFA concerns, the steps in the niches were slightly recessed to help retain the appearance that the niches still existed. Although the lighting for the illuminated skylights had been softened as well, J. Carter Brown still claimed they would overwhelm the Hemicycle and upstage Arlington House and the Lincoln Memorial (both of which were also illuminated at night). With the CFA apparently convinced that the lighting was out of the question, Weiss and Manfredi introduced lighting expert Howard Brandston, a fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. Brandston testified that no lighting was intended for the skylights themselves; lighting would only come from below, in the illuminated memorial galleries. Furthermore, he said, only a "soft glow" would be visible through the balustrade at th
caption: The rill between the fountain and pool was criticized by the Commission of Fine Arts as "too Middle Eastern"; the 200-jet fountain was one of the last design elements added.
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