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AIDS MEMORIAL PARK

This design seeks to create a participatory, living canopy dedicated to the commemoration of the lives of New Yorkers ended prematurely by the AIDS epidemic. As a celebration of their lives and of those who survive them, this memorial represents a new type; it is created solely by its visitors’ collective participation. Its living fabric constitutes a canopy that delicately cascades over its park environs, anchoring an underground museum and learning center with a cool, quiet courtyard space for reflection, open to the sky.

The memorial offers simply an armature upon which each visitor contributes a part. Presented with a red sheet of weather-resistant paper, visitors may write a message inside, a message that will be carried forward with the voices of every other visitor. Rolled and tied around the armature’s threads, each “ribbon” is progressively lifted up with every addition; the chain of ribbons creates a thread that gracefully ascends the armature.

By so doing, many small personal gestures culminate into what amounts to a rich and tactile tapestry that envelopes the visitor and offers a glimpse at the scale and extent to which this disease has affected us. Each piece is touched.

Competition entry, 2011.

Completed in collaboration with David Nix.

       Bergen ︎ 

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