John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza features four stark white walls standing fifty feet high, open to the sky and hovering above the ground. Philip Johnson designed this cenotaph to offer a place of quiet reflection for the public. Instead of a statue or traditional monument, he created an empty room of concrete and granite. Visitors enter through narrow gaps in the walls to find a small, carved stone marker resting on the floor, inscribed with the president's name in gold leaf.