The design submitted by Friedrich St. Florian, an architect based in Providence, RI, was selected as one of six semi-finalists in an open, national competition. Leo A Daly, an international architecture firm, assembled the winning team with St. Florian as the design architect. The team also included Hartman-Cox Architects, landscape architect Oehme, van Sweden & Associates, sculptor Ray Kaskey, and stone carver and letterer Nick Benson. St. Florian’s memorial design concept was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission in the summer of 1998. The commissions approved the preliminary design in 1999, the final architectural design and several ancillary elements in 2000, granite selections in 2001, and sculpture and inscriptions in 2002 and 2003.