memorial

COMPETITION FINALIST

New York, NY

2013

The names and personal histories of the casualties of the 1911 Triangle Fire will be memorialized on the 146 thin strips of copper, than gently weave in between 146 horizontal rods evenly spaced over the building's 10 stories. Rather than merely listing the names of the unfortunate, this tribute is intended to reveal how intertwined the personal histories of the victims are to one another, the time in which they lived, and the industry in which they travailed. Passersby and visitors of the memorial will be able to feel the raised letters over the metal describing the histories of the lives lost, creating an intimate and sensory experience of the individuals when read vertically, but perhaps more revealing is how the facts about the victims' lives align horizontally. Limiting the extent of the memorial to a single pier on the façade of the Asch Building draws one's gaze upwards providing a measure of the distance so many fell.