Archinect - News

Winning designer of Canada’s Afghan War memorial sues government for bid slight

2024-05-01T19:06:00-04:00

The winning bid for a $3.5 million contract to design a new memorial to Canadian military veterans of the war in Afghanistan from a Montreal-based studio that was replaced by the government has prompted a lawsuit by its architect. Renée Daoust is suing the federal government after it replaced hers with a proposal from the Indigenous artist Adrian Stimson citing an apparently “un-scientific” online survey, according to the CBC’s reporting last month.

"We're very concerned because it does create a precedent, a very dangerous precedent for Canada in terms of competitions, public art competitions, architectural competitions and so on," Daoust told the broadcaster. "There was political interference, so we don't want this to happen again."

Stimson is reportedly working to finalize his design without a clear resolution in sight. The American National Global War on Terror memorial in Washington, D.C. from Marlon Blackwell Architects is also being planned for the National Mall.

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Davidson College unveils plans for a new memorial to enslaved and exploited people, led by Hank Willis Thomas and Perkins&Will

2023-06-01T12:17:00-04:00

Davidson College has unveiled its plans for a new memorial to the enslaved and exploited people whose hands built the 186-year-old liberal arts institution. The design effort of the sculpture titled “With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited” will be led by Perkins&Will in collaboration with Hank Willis Thomas.

The artist of Boston's new commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King will deliver a similar monumental bronze sculpture that emerges prominently from a refuge-like space nearby the campus’s original Oak and Elm buildings.

Thomas was selected for the commission following a two-year search process led by alumni that reflects similar reconciliation efforts at Brown University, The College of William & Mary, UNC Chapel Hill, and perhaps most notably, the Höweler+Yoon project at the University of Virginia spearheaded by alumna Mabel O. Wilson.

Svigals + Partners to design a Memorial Garden in honor of victims of gun violence

2019-02-07T15:07:00-05:00

For New Haven school teacher Marlene Miller Pratt, whose son was shot and killed in 1998, the effort to build a memorial to victims of gun violence is about building a serene space to remember loved ones.

"We wanted to develop an area that was going to be beautiful, so that we wouldn't have to go to the cemetery to visit our children. Because when you go to the cemetery, it's so desolate," she told the park commission as she presented her pitch for a memorial garden back in September.

Pratt, and other concerned mothers in New Haven, Connecticut, have spent the past several years advocating for a place to honor those lost to gun violence through the beauty of nature, efforts for which are now paying off. Working with Urban Resources Initiative—a non-profit that helps to rejuvenate and renovate urban environments—the Lost Generation Memorial Garden could be open to the public as soon as this summer.

Designed with help from architecture and planning firm Svigals + Partners, the site ...