Thirty-eight sculptured soldiers trudge toward an American flag in what will become the memorial for veterans of the Korean War in Washington, D.C.

The design for this memorial is part of "Competitions x 3," an exhibit in the Formal Gallery of the HUB featuring winning designs, representative entries and design programs from three recent memorial design competitions: the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the National Peach Garden Competition, and the Women in Military Service for American Memorial Competition.

State College architects Don Alvaro Leon and John Paul Lucas and landscape architects Veronica Burns Lucas and Eliza Pennypacker Oberholtzer, all on the University faculty, submitted the winning design for the Korean War Veterans Memorial.

According to the architects' design statement, the memorial attempts to "resolve manifestly oppositional issues of war: issues of self and of nation, awareness of immediacy and of timelessness, questions of meaning of the Korean War and of all other wars." It features a pathway, which includes sixteen aspects of war along a timeline. The pathway signifies the 38th parallel, the separation between North and South Korea.

Among the nine other Korean War Memorial Competition entries displayed in the HUB are "Dry Rock Garden," in which each rock grouping, alley or bridge has a significance, and a water and earth design based on the interlocking comma design from the flag of the Korean Republic.

Entries in the National Peace Garden Competition ranged from a grid of telephone booths arranged seven by seven secluded by a grove of trees, to the winning design based on the olive branch, a symbol of peace. The memorial, which will be located at Haines Point in Washington, is a striking garden of only green and white plants and flowers.

The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Competition also brought a wide range of interpretations. The exhibit brochure points out that while many artists addressed the traditional obscurity of women's military roles, the winning design confronts this obscurity with lighted trylons, or tall, three-sided cones, to command attention.

Neil Porterfield, a member of the Commission of Fine Arts that reviews all architectural projects proposed for the District of Columbia, said competitions have historically been a way of discovering design talent on a national and international basis. They also produce a wide range of interpretations.

"It is an opportunity for designers and artists to make known their abilities and to ultimately gain commissions that otherwise they wouldn't gain," said Porterfield, who heads the department of landscape architecture at Penn State.

Leon said that design competitions offer architects a unique challenge. "It's an opportunity to focus our inquiry on a specific issue. . . and investigate the ideas of design," he said. One of the shortcomings of competitions is that their time limitations don't always allow for ideas to be fully developed, he said.

Burns Lucas said another problem can be the lack of communication between the client and the designer. She said the one single design statement the artist submits must represent a long, complex design process.

Other Washington, D.C. structures whose designs were chosen through competitions are the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Washington Monument. Burns Lucas said creating designs for the D.C. area is unique because of the sacred qualities of the site an A total of 25 designs are on display in the HUB Gallery, and the exhibit continues until March 25.