Marine Corps museum gets a fitting symbol

[Jack Linthicum]

I have snipped the local development paragraphs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19875-2005Apr1.html

washingtonpost.com
Marine Corps Museum Gets a Fitting Symbol

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 2, 2005; Page B01

A new landmark is visible above the trees along Interstate 95 near
Quantico -- a 20-story-tall mast that rises at an angle over the
National Museum of the Marine Corps under construction in Triangle.

With the help of about 60 workers, the 43-ton, 240-foot-long mast went
up Wednesday. It leans at a 60-degree angle, with the U.S. and Marine
Corps flags dangling from the top. The mast will be encased in
stainless steel to resemble a giant flagpole and will be the
centerpiece of the museum, which is to open in November 2006.

Its odd angle recalls the flag raising at Iwo Jima captured in arguably
the most famous military photograph in history and reproduced at the
Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington.

Prince William County officials and the military foundation raising
money for the museum predict that the mystique of the Marine Corps will
draw thousands of visitors to the $140 million facility.

Retired Brig. Gen. Gerald L. McKay, chief operating officer of the
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit group dedicated to
promoting the corps and its history, predicts that the museum will draw
300,000 to 500,000 visitors annually.

The museum is one of several attractions planned in the county's east
end, an area that has struggled to define itself despite its prime
location along the Potomac River and near I-95. Foundation and county
officials say the museum will boost tourism and economic development in
the area.

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Sean T. Connaughton (R), chairman of the Board of County Supervisors,
said he expects that Marine reunions will create the need for lodgings
and banquet facilities near the museum.

"The history of any sort of major attraction like this in other
communities is that the visitors generate a demand for hotels and
shops," said Connaughton, the son of a naval officer and a graduate of
the Merchant Marine Academy. "What you'll see and what we have already
seen is an interest from individuals and developers in the land down
there."

The museum was designed by the Denver-based architectural firm Fentress
Bradburn, which also designed Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High
Stadium and the expansion of the Boston Museum of Science.

When the Marine Corps museum opens, it will lack several facilities
such as an IMAX theater and a conference center. Those will be added as
additional money is raised, said retired Col. Raymond A. Hord, the
foundation's vice president of development and marketing. The $80
million first phase of the project will comprise core exhibits,
including interactive ones created by Christopher Chadbourne and
Associates, a Boston firm whose clients include the National Museum of
American History in Washington and an education center at Yellowstone
National Park.

>From a winter battlefield in Korea to the inside of a helicopter and a
landing zone in 1968 Vietnam, visitors will become Marines. Hord
described an "immersion experience" in which visitors will hear a
commanding officer "barking orders" over an audiotape.

"We're trying to immerse you into what it must have been like for the
18-year-old Marines," he said.

One exhibit, called "Making Marines," will be an actual boot camp where
visitors will be able to fire a laser M-16 rifle much like playing a
game in an arcade, McKay said.

The museum also will have more traditional exhibits, such as
documentary films, combat locator maps, personal letters, an AV-8
Harrier jet and the original flag raised at Iwo Jima.

"We want a teacher to be able to bring his or her students and have
professional docents take them through and teach them military history
as seen through the Marine Corps," McKay said.

The foundation has raised $43 million of the $50 million it has pledged
to complete the design and construction of the museum's first phase.

Of that, $850,000 came from Prince William. The Marine Corps has
dedicated $30 million for the building's interior, Hord said.

The county also donated the 135-acre site to the foundation. The group
expects to increase its balance with the help of a commemorative silver
dollar in honor of the Marine Corps that will be available for sale in
July, McKay said.

The second phase, "a $60 million build-out," which could include more
galleries, an IMAX theater and a conference center, will require
additional fundraising for at least five more years, Hord said.