Memorials

Last week, we learned about the landscape architecture behind places for entertainment, such as parks, resorts, and amusement parks.  This week, let’s take a look at memorials.

Many of us have visited New York City.  This past semester, I got the chance to go with my program for the first time to explore various projects around the city.  We visited many sites, the most memorable being Ground Zero and the Irish Famine Memorial.  These two places hold very special meaning and evoke emotions separate from those we feel on a daily basis.

Ground Zero remembers the biggest terrorist attack in American history: 9/11, a terrible tragedy.  In place of the twin towers are two deep-sunken footprints.  Looking down into an expansive black void creates a somber atmosphere.  Additionally, the rushing water add a calming and reflective effect.  Lastly, the names of those lost in the attack are inscribed around the footprints in order to give the space personal and tangible connection.  Further off the site is the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, a big white building that looks like a dove, symbolizing peace.

Probably less well-known is the Pentagon Memorial, built for the third plane that crashed that day.  It is much more of a contemplative space rather than a tourist’s destination.  Each person that died in that attack has a bench in honour of them,  each with their own reflecting pool and light illuminating their name.  Benches that face the building represent people who were inside the Pentagon, while benches turned the other way follow the path of the plane.  The emotions drawn from this memorial are so strong due to the design-based symbolism.

Before joining this major, I had no idea landscape architects were behind these memorials.  Along with memorials, landscape architects design other commemorative landscapes like cemeteries, monuments, and historic sites.   The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.  The Washington Monument.  The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial.  All these expressive places are carefully designed by landscape architects to influence human experience.  And these places are the strongest example of how humans can be connected to a space through memory and emotion.