The United States got in and out of World War I in well under two years. The U.S. World War I Centennial Commission hopes it can move as quickly. Yesterday, it chose a design for the National World War I Memorial by Joseph Weishaar, a 2013 graduate of the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. His proposal, titled “The Weight of Sacrifice,” was one of 350 competition entries; five finalists were announced last August.

“People respond to places as much as buildings,” says Weishaar, 25. The main features of his memorial are a new lawn and two works by the New York-based neoclassical sculptor Sabin Howard. One, which Weishaar compares to the famous images of Iwo Jima, depicts three soldiers and a cannon. The other is an 81-foot-long bas relief.