Archinect
markharris ARCHITECTS, PC

markharris ARCHITECTS, PC Diversity Badge

Indigenous owned

Colorado Springs, CO

anchor

Memorial for J. Robert Oppenheimer

Proposal for a memorial to J. Robert Oppenheimer located in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA (outside Alamogordo, NM).  The project features an Earth Dig (an absence), overseen by the Menace Machine, a solar-powered kinetic machine that projects images onto the interior walls.  The circuitous route around the Earth Dig terminates at an altered landscape, signifying that while humanity might terminate itself, nature will find a way to continued, slightly altered with new forms of life.  The project is clearly not meant to be soothing or 'calmly contemplative', but somewhat terrifying and intimidating, recognizing that we cannot afford to normalize the notion of nuclear detonation.

 
Read more

Status: Unbuilt
Location: Alamogordo, NM, US
Firm Role: Principal in Charge, Project Architect, Project Manager
Additional Credits: Richard Mapes, Intern