Two public forums are left for community input into the January 8th Memorial and the design concept for the downtown El Presidio Park where the memorial will find its home.
The Los Angeles-based CSAO, or Chee Salette Architecture Office, was chosen to design a master plan for the park and memorial.
In May, the firm offered a presentation titled “The Embrace” — an interactive copper sculpture with water flowing behind it, through it and over it. The piece expresses a rift, but also bridges the community that experienced “the incomprehensible violence of Jan. 8,” according to presenters.
Meetings for input have continued with University of Arizona historians and archaeologists, National Park Service employees who have expertise in memorial designs, groups interested in downtown development, and city and county personnel who are familiar with the sustainability of parks, said Karen Christensen, president of the Tucson January 8th Memorial Foundation Board of Directors.
“The architectural team still needs to create a master plan concept for a civic plaza, and create the memorial,” Christensen said. “The Chee team wants to hear from you and be responsive to what the Tucson community wants.”
“We need the help and support of Tucsonans to create the January 8th Memorial and re-envision a vital civic space in the heart of Tucson,” Marc Salette, principal of Chee Salette, said in a news release. “The design team is really looking forward to engaging with people who care about their community and this project.”
In January, a final design may be completed, followed by a development and construction stage. Construction potentially would start in 2016, Christensen said.
The project would be funded through Pima County bonds if voters approve a $98.6 million tourism promotion bond question as part of an $815 million bond package in November.
The January 8th and El Presidio project would receive $25 million in bond funding if voters approve the ballot question.
However, of the $25 million bond, $21 million is earmarked for the historic domed old Pima County Courthouse renovation and the remaining $4 million is set for the memorial and park project, Christensen said.
“We will have an exhibition area in the old courthouse with space available to tell the history of that day,” Christensen said. “We are collecting videotaped interviews of survivors and the survivor families, photographs and tribute materials left at University Medical Center’s lawn, Safeway (parking lot) and at Gabby’s office” (then U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) — the locations where impromptu shrines went up after the shooting spree.
The Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting killed six and wounded 13 at a northwest-side shopping center where Giffords, who was shot in the head, was meeting with constituents.
The memorial campaign steering committee with honorary co-chairs Giffords and Jim Click are spearheading the raising of $4 million to match the bond funding for the memorial and the exhibition at the old county courthouse, Christensen said.
