Polshek Partnership Architects Will Design Vietnam Veterans Memorial

A New York architectural firm was selected yesterday to design an underground exhibit center at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that is to be one of the last projects built on the Mall.

Polshek Partnership Architects, selected from four finalists culled from a field of 39 entrants, was asked to design a building that would offer a one-of-a-kind educational experience yet not compete with the emotional impact of the memorial's iconic black wall of names.

The $40 million center, to include 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of exhibit space, is expected to take three to five years to construct. It will be built with private money, and cost estimates have quadrupled since it was proposed four years ago.

President Bush signed a bill authorizing its construction in November. The bill also banned future construction of memorials, monuments and interpretive centers not already approved.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the private group sponsoring the center, would not release details of the winning entry, saying it is only conceptual in scope. But Jan C. Scruggs, fund founder and president, described the ideas of the Polshek firm and its exhibition designer, Ralph Applebaum Associates of New York, as "brilliant."

"I wanted to do this very much," James S. Polshek, the firm's founding partner, said in a phone interview. "