A rendering of what the Eisenhower Memorial will look like from the ground level, with the 80-foot-tall metal tapestries rising behind and around it.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s sole surviving child has added his voice to the chorus of critics of a proposed Frank Gehry-designed memorial for the 34th president, calling it “off base” and asking that a simpler and cheaper alternative design be considered.

In a letter sent to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) in mid-October and made public yesterday, John S.D. Eisenhower asks that consideration of Gehry’s proposed—and controversial—design be delayed so that a simpler and more cost-effective design can be developed:

The Memorial design is so far off base that I urged a delay in the planning process for an extended period. An additional argument for a delay is our nation’s economic situation. We have priorities more urgent than building such an expensive memorial right now. While no one wants to see taxpayer money come to naught, the memorial design is very controversial and unlikely to meet its financial goals. Taxpayers and donors alike will be better served with an Eisenhower Square that is a green open space with a simple statue in the middle, and quotations from his important sayings.

Eisenhower has gotten at least part of his requested delay—last week the National Capital Planning Commission, which is charged with reviewing and approving any final design for the memorial, announced that it wouldn’t consider Gehry’s proposal until 2013.

Gehry envisions a large square with a statue, walls bearing inscriptions of Eisenhower’s sayings and 80-foot-tall metal tapestries with images of the Kansas landscape framing the site. The design and construction of Gehry’s design is estimated at $142 million.

Members of Eisenhower’s family, led by granddaughter Susan, have complained that the tapestries are too large and resemble art and architecture from totalitarian states. In June, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stepped in to mediate between the Eisenhower family and the commission that selected Gehry’s design.

In his letter to Inouye, Eisenhower wrote that Gehry’s design—which has received support from some well-known architects and designers—”it too extravagant and it attempts to do too much.”

John S.D. Eisenhower’s Letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye on the Eisenhower Memorial