Chicago, Illinois
In April 2021, The Pritzker Military Museum & Library, located in Chicago, launched an international competition for the new Cold War Veterans Memorial to be built in Somers, Wisconsin.
After reviewing an impressive number of inspiring design concepts, four finalists have been selected to advance to Stage II of the competition.
The Cold War Veterans Memorial will be a critical piece of the Pritzker Archives and Memorial Park Center (PAMPC) currently under development.
The four finalists are representatives from the U.S., Italy, Japan, and Jordan. These individuals and groups achieved the highest scores against strict criteria, including individuality, relevance, and conceptualization.
The design challenge was to provide a conceptual design for the Cold War Veterans Memorial that embraces the mission statement, exemplifies the guiding vision, and achieves the design goals.
Here are the finalists:
Michele De Lucchi with Francesco Forcella (project architect), Nicholas Bewick, Junmei Liu, Emanuele Novembre, Guido Tarantola, Mayya Sargsyan of AMDL CIRCLE in Milan, Italy designed “Moebius Loop or Orbit.”
Although this Memorial project was born out of the importance of respecting and honoring those that served during the Cold War period, we also see its relevance as a heroic symbol towards our continually evolving universe and the existence of human life.
For this reason, we have chosen not only the metaphor of infinity, by evoking the ‘Moebius Loop or Orbit’ in our design concept, but also to create an experience and place from which to think about our complex global interrelationships, in the hope that they can find a harmony that links every single person and preserves the physical environment in which we all live.
Mai Abu-Shanab and Jalal Al-Sadi of m+j architect studio atelier in Amman, Jordan selected the title: “The Conflict” as their submission.
According to the designers, their cold war memorial is intended to honor individuals and groups and give permanent recognition to accomplishments, as quietly made, by countless individuals and groups as they pursued the expansion of freedom and democracy, creating a place for reflection and remembrance, inspiring the public to perceive freedom for centuries to come.
Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler of Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles, California proposed a vision of a memorial that embodies the ideals and mission of Memorial Park, making more tactile a context that can’t be measured in a single name or event: only in glimpses of history.
Within these glimpses is layered a timeline of both personal and collective experiences emblematic of the Cold War – a paradigm that rebalances the interconnected narratives of American innovation and service.
Shinsaku Munemoto of Shinsaku Munemoto & Associates, Architects in Kyoto, Japan chose the theme: Eternal Circulation.
Munemoto’s memorial intends to preserve the memories, records, and achievements of the veterans in perpetuity.
By uncovering the layer of land, one space separates into two.
The space of the “past” underneath meets the layers of the veterans’ work and time, where one can relive the veterans’ history and memories of the Cold War.
The satellite dish formed above forges the “present” space to transmit the histories and memories.
Through the hole opened in the unfolded land, the archive is seen, bridging the “past” records to the “present,” creating an Eternal Circulation of education and communication.
The Competition Leadership Group will conduct an individual review of each design submittal and provide an advisory report of its findings to the Jury.
The Jury will analyze each design and determine whether the integrity of the design concept embodied in the Stage I entry has been maintained in the Stage II design submittal and how it addresses the mission, vision, and design goals for the Memorial.
The winning design will be announced publicly in March 2022.
Project: The Cold War Veterans Memorial
Architects: AMDL CIRCLE
Client: Pritzker Military Museum & Library
