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Studio Libeskind unveils preliminary design for Tree of Life synagogue shooting memorial in Pittsburgh

2023-12-08T15:16:00-05:00

Preliminary designs for Studio Libeskind’s long-awaited 10/27 Memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh have officially been announced following a sensitive design consultation with families of the victims of the tragic 2018 mass shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured.

“The journey to unveiling the preliminary memorial designs has been a long and emotional one, but I am grateful for a process that prioritized our hopes that our loved ones are remembered for how they lived, not solely for how they were murdered,” said Diane Rosenthal, a member of the Memorialization Working Group who lost two siblings in the attack, which stands as the deadliest antisemitic hate incident in American history.

A March 2022 rendering of the Tree of Life project depicting the expanded building. Image: Studio Libeskind

The group, which represents all three congregations included within the 70-year-old synagogue, was also able to visit the memorial to passengers of Flight ...

How schools are adapting their architecture for enhanced student safety amid lack of gun control

2023-03-22T19:57:00-04:00

But now, instead of calling for fortified entrances and security features that can put students on edge, experts are calling for a more holistic approach – where architecture serves as a conduit for both physical security and for supporting students' mental health to prevent violence in the first place.

Responsive elements like magnet-locking classroom doors, “shadow zones”, and even bulletproof storm shelters have been popular design solutions for school districts such as Fruitport, Michigan, which just spent $48 million on a new building based on those and other, less visible concerns.

Architects must consider not only the immediate physical prevention of violence but also the positive impact on the psychological development of pupils their designs can have. This means the K-12 sector may be undergoing its largest change since the 1970s, when the movement towards large classrooms and open spaces engendered many of the challenges safety upgrade projects are tying to mitigate.

Earlier on Archinect: Designing around gun violence

"They have these hallways and lockers, but there's no place to hang out, no place to socialize," architect Rene Berndt, who sits on the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) board of directors, explained to NPR. "And so, we're trying our b...

Daniel Libeskind selected for renovation of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, site of 2018 mass shooting

2021-05-04T13:25:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind, an architect known for memorializing historical trauma, will turn the site of 11 deaths back into a home for worship as well as a place to learn about confronting hatred.

In the wake of the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured, the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation was faced with a long internal discussion about the future of its building. This week, the synagogue's leadership announced the selection of New York architect Daniel Libeskind, a son of Polish Holocaust survivors himself, to lead the renovation effort of the campus.

As the New York Times reports, the initiative will also create classrooms, a communal space, a Hall of Memories dedicated to the 2018 attack as well as spaces for exhibitions and public programs of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

"We must return," the paper quotes Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life. "If we don’t, we give the message that evil won."

New high school incorporates design elements meant to hinder active shooters

2019-08-23T15:30:00-04:00

With school shootings becoming a point of concern for many across the country, K-12 design methodologies are beginning to address the issue as well.

Fruitport High School in Fruitport, Michigan, for example, is undergoing a $48 million renovation project aimed at incorporating some of these design approaches. The new work "will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman’s range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer’s sight," reports The Washington Post.

Speaking with The Washington Post, Matt Sagle of TowerPinkster, and an architect on the project, illustrated the project's "shadow zones," designed areas for students to hide in that are obstructed from a shooter's sight lines. TowerPinkster also designs prisons; Regarding the project, The Washington Post writes that Sagle "wanted to strike a balance between security and creating a welcoming presence without the pendulum ...

Revising the city in the aftermath of violence

2016-07-11T18:39:00-04:00

A mass shooting scenario changes the function of every object in the built environment. [...] The buildings themselves, the fabric of the city, ends up not mattering so much. In fact, sometimes it becomes a kind of enemy. [...] Americans aren’t going to rebuild their cities to accommodate the possibility of violence. The people who protect the people in those cities will just have to learn to see them differently.

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