Competitions

Pentagon Competition

Intent

Addressing both the charge of the victim’s families to ‘create a memorial that translates this terrible tragedy into a place of solace, peace, and healing’ and the requirement that ‘the memorial speak generally as the U.S. government’s official response to the tragedies ’ the design of this memorial is based on the conceptualization and formalization of UNITY. From the teamwork initiated in rescuing victims, thwarting attacks, and coming to the aid of those in need to the firm resolve of an independent and free populace to come together as a nation and fight terrorism, UNITY, especially in a time of despair and confusion, is what makes our country truly great.

Design Methodology

Within the specific bounds of this project, the idea of unity is born out through a landscape gesture that both represents the country as a whole, and the tragic losses we suffered on the day of the attacks. This calls for an intervention at a monumental scale that can not only represent the enormity of our nation of millions of individual people, but also can significantly present itself on a site (the western edge of the pentagon) where the scale of neighbor- ing highways, national parks, and the pentagon itself demands an appropriately sized gesture. Functionally, the design responds to the need to both separate a place of solace and healing from the commotion of parkway traffic, and the need to contain visitors to the site itself.