Art: Unsolved Problem

This week Philadelphia's Art Alliance put models and plans for 15 U.S. war memorials on display. The work of well-established firms selected by the U.S. Battle Monuments Commission,* they would be translated into stone within two years at military cemeteries in Britain, Europe, North Africa and the Philippines.

The show was intended to represent solutions to "the problem of adequately—or gloriously—commemorating the sacrifice of those soldiers and sailors who died in battle." The question was: Were its solutions adequate, let alone glorious?

At least two outspoken architects thought not. Complained Philadelphia's J. Roy Carroll Jr.: "The designs for the most part are pale...