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 will challenge the community to confront all that's been lost to guns. A path of stones engraved with the names, ages, and dates of city victims will date back to 1980. As visitors move through the garden, ambient sounds from a row of wind chimes will provide calm and mask the sound of car traffic along seating areas intended for remembrance and reflection.

A perspective sculpture at the center of the park will show abstract human figures that are revealed or concealed depending on where the viewer is standing. Central to the project is the recognition of the compounded impact and generational trauma each death has on a community. According to Marissa Mead, the design lead for the memorial, the sculpture "serves as a reminder of both the fragility and strength that exists within families and communities. Figurative voids in the piece illustrate the ever-present sense of absence when loved ones are lost to tragedy, and allude to the idea that death has a compounded influence on both current and future generations.”

Addressing issues of gun violence is nothing new for the architecture firm, which led the design of the new Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut, and whose partner Jay Brotman, has testified in front of Congress about participatory processes for safe school design. On the Lost Generation Memorial Garden, Associate Principal Julia McFadden noted they we eager to get involved. "This important work dovetails with our mission to create and support prosperous, compassionate communities,” she said.

Though the project is still fundraising the costs of building out the memorial, once completed, it will all be worth it for Pratt. "Most of all," she said, "it would give me a sense of healing of knowing that the city has not forgotten my child or any of the other mothers' children."