Been wondering what that enormous sculpture erected on a hill near the

Pentagon — the one that looks like “wavy future grass,” or “where

Wolverine is buried,” according to friends of ours — is, exactly?

Well, you can get your chance to find out this weekend at the

dedication services taking place for what is the area’s first Air Force memorial.

Dedication services will be taking place all weekend long, starting

with a ceremony at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, which the general public can

view from the South Pentagon Parking Lot. Other festivities will

continue throughout the weekend, including a performance by country!

superstar! Lee Ann Womack; the U.S. Air Force Drill Team; and F-16s

flying overhead.

More information about the events can be found here,

and Metro has kindly posted transportation info here.

As for the memorial itself, which is designed by James Freed and shoots

nearly 300 feet up in the sky — well, we’re not architecture experts,

but we did solicit the opinions of those better versed, better looking,

and generally smarter than us for their thoughts about the memorial.

DCist Jeff had this to say:

I have no affinity for zooty,

contemporary art or architecture, but I rather like the AF memorial. I

think it gives exactly the impression that the AF wants. When I saw it

this weekend, it reminded me of the white smoke streams left behind

planes when they split formation (jets peeling away from each other at

ridiculous speeds, sound shrieking, sort of an awe-inducing

experience). With that thought in mind, I thought it nailed it pretty

well.

However, local blogger the Nabob voiced his concerns this past June

about the specific location of the memorial:

…As a whole,

the project bothers me.

The exact flight path of Flight 77 on September 11th will probably

never be mapped, based on the plane’s angle at impact there is a good

chance that it flew either directly over or very close to where this

monument is being built. In fact, that same hill between the Navy Annex

and Citgo is where the media and curious onlookers gathered for the

best vantage of the fire and destruction. On the heavy traffic mornings

when we creep along Route 27, the highway between the Memorial and the

Pentagon, I can’t help but to consider the people who were in a similar

situation when 77 thundered by at over 500 mph 30 feet above their

cars…And without dwelling too long on theories of space-time and

dimensional continuity, I feel that having a large, essentially

claw-like structure flaring 270 from the ground disrupts this venerated

airspace.

Have you seen the memorial? (Considering that it’s so effing huge you

can see it practically anywhere in D.C., we’re guessing yes.) What are

your thoughts?

Computer-generated photo from airforcememorial.org