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October One Memorial
By : Paul Murdoch Architects
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Other categories in architecture / Concept & Unbuilt : Silver Certification
The design honors the memory of the 58 victims who were murdered on October 1, 2017, at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, the deadliest mass-shooting in American history.
The site is a 2-acre portion of the concert venue, adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip. The memorial takes the form of a monument to express the magnitude of the tragedy, the strength of collective action taken in response to the violence, and to withstand the monumental spectacle of the commercial buildings on the Strip.
The memorial design remembers the 58 victims who died that evening in the architectural figure expression of Angels’ wings, an echo and homage to how the community of families of lost loved ones, survivors, first-responders, emergency responders refer to these innocent victims. The memorial also commemorates the courage of first-responders, law enforcement, fire fighters, and emergency medical teams—all as Guardian Angels who saved many lives, and the hundreds of wounded concertgoers, whose absolute joy in country music that evening was turned into absolute terror, and whose traumatic wounds—both emotional and physical—continue to heal.
The 58 Angels are the inspiration for the sculptural shape of the memorial, through the form of a winged pavilion that evokes their spiritual freedom. This is in response to how central the 58 Angels are to lives of the impacted community. It is a winged, open-air sanctuary and a commemorative pavilion that tells the stories of the 58 Angels, survivors, responders and community within its walls. Rather than creating distinct memorial and exhibition buildings, the winged pavilion integrates commemorative, interpretive and narrative functions into one long monument that envelopes space within for reflection and gestures outwards and upwards for power. The memorial expresses the qualities of unity, strength, peace, family and remembrance that embody the feelings and values conveyed through direct dialogue with stakeholders during the design process.
The unique character of Las Vegas and its dramatic regional context form an underlying dialogue in the memorial design. The Mojave Desert offers inspiration for healing, in offering a serene garden counterpoint to the urban context by allowing quiet contemplation and remembrance among native planting and precious, nurturing shade.
Besides the light of the desert, the use of artificial light at night provides a critical dimension to the memorial experience. Light in Las Vegas is relentless, monumental, dynamic, visually loud and animated. It competes with the day and overwhelms after sunset. The memorial uses these qualities to contrast and emphasize the seriousness and emotion of the experience. Light is used in an abstract manner to balance the multitude of images and the impact of media that is typically Las Vegas. Daylight is softened in the day by the play of shadow and the light in the evening finds a classical balance that is stable and evokes the chiaroscuro of the whole experience.
For many of the 22,000 plus in attendance that evening, complete healing may never come. But just as the families have built a beautiful Healing Garden a few miles away, a refuge where they can find some comfort and solace in the company of others as they remember their lost loved ones, we believe the community of Las Vegas, survivors, first-responders, and compassionate visitors to the city will find this memorial on the site of the tragedy also to be a place of healing and consoling beauty. By anchoring the memorial in the site of this atrocity, we hope the memory of those lost and injured that evening will move all who visit to nurture love and kindness toward others.
We believe in the power of memory to mend broken hearts and a broken world.
Collaboration
Architect : Paul Murdoch Architects
Landscape Architecture : Attanasio Landscape Architects
Lighting : George Sexton Associates
