A town committee selected the design for a memorial dedicated to the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting. Nearly six years ago 20 students and six teachers were killed at the elementary school making Newtown the home to a tragedy.
“I’m amazed by the picture of what the memorial’s going to look like. If it’s really supposed to be that beautiful, I think the whole town will love it. It’s also something I think this town needs. It isn’t just reminding us of loss, but it serves to remind us of the victims’ lives,” NHS senior Gillian Faircloth said.
The memorial will be built on a five-acre site near the school, which was signed over by a trust in 2017. The trust was received by the Sandy Hook Memorial Commission, which is composed of ten members, three of them being victims’ parents. An entrance on Riverside Drive and a rear gate leading to Treadwell Park are the memorial’s two points of access.
Out of two hundred proposals, the design settled on was produced by a San Francisco firm SWA Group titled “the clearing”. The design includes a reflecting pool twenty-six panels of granite, each containing the name of one of the shooting’s victims. Intersecting walkways including footbridges placed over two existing ponds lead to this water feature. In the proposal sent by SWA, the designers described the trails as “braided” since they overlap each other and weave between trees. According to SWA, the design of the walkways promotes healing with the pathway not containing a true beginning or end.
“We wanted to acknowledge that the healing process does not end, but continues and grows . . . We felt a path would both represent and nurture this process,” SWA designers said.
Some of the planted trees will be maple, linden, and evergreens: all trees resilient during the winter. The architecture group said the trees would thrive during the same time as the Sandy Hook anniversary which is in December, in order to represent the resilience displayed by our own town. A Sycamore will be placed on an island in the memorial’s main 22-foot water feature. The tree will be planted in soil with ashes from incinerated teddy bears and flowers flowing down river following the massacre.
“Putting a tree with so much significance is great, especially what they’re doing with the soil. Even though you don’t see the ashes, knowing that they’re there is like knowing some of Sandy Hook’s memory is there too,” NHS senior Liza Gentrup said.
Along with the Sandy Hook Memorial Commission’s board, the victims’ families reportedly loved the memorial. Having set $250,000 aside for the memorial, the town expects the construction to be complete on the seven year anniversary, December 12th 2019.
"I think the wait for this memorial is definitely worth it. Creating something as beautiful as this cannot be done in a short amount of time. I think the families are going to like being able to go there,” NHS senior Katie Kost said.
Image courtesy of the Newtown Bee.