Here's what the Waukesha Christmas Parade memorials will look like and where they'll be

WAUKESHA - Along the streets where the horrors of the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade still hang in the air, the city has OK'd a plan to bring a more tangible way to honor those killed and hurt.

But there's still a lot more to be done before two memorials honoring victims and celebrating the community's unity are ready to be constructed.

Members of the Waukesha Parade Memorial Commission selected Thrive Architects to design and implement both memorials in downtown Waukesha along and near the parade route where an SUV struck parade participants, killing six, nearly nine months ago.

For Thrive, a Waukesha-based company, its role in creating the memorial is beside the point.

"We're honored and humbled, but ... this isn't really about us," said Jeremy Bartlett, the principal owner. "It's a memorial. At the end of the day, we want to fade into the background. This is about the victims, the first responders and the people who were at that parade and were affected."

The firm's South Street office is a block away from the parade route downtown. The parade commission on Sept. 13 selected Thrive's proposal from among five applicants for a Main Street memorial and another three applicants for a larger memorial in Grede Park on Wisconsin and St. Paul avenues off the west end of Main Street.

The memorials will be built at the Five Points and Grede Park

In Thrive's presentations and a subsequent interview, Bartlett said the task his firm undertook to create two memorials — separated by several blocks but sharing a common design — tried to capture the sense of tragedy and healing simultaneously.

"I can say I share with everyone the emotions — first the shock, and I think the reality of walking the police line the next morning to get to our office," he said. "From that day on, we all thought about ways we could pick the community up.

"This isn't about being unhappy forever," he added. "This is about taking something that was terrible and turn(ing) it into something positive. So, today, that's what we're here to do."

As such, Thrive's plans both recalls the tragedy — six metal ribbons, meant to represent the six people killed, are a key part of the designs — and tries to deliver a message of "healing and caring," Bartlett said in a separate interview.

The smaller downtown memorial, which will stand at the Five Points intersection, would allow the linked ribbons to flow into an eye-catching design that also carries the words "Waukesha Strong" and the date of the attack.

At Grede Park, the larger memorial that includes walkways and landscaping, the ribbons would form a six-layer heart at the center with swirling concrete accents around it.

Memorials will likely be complete by September 2023

Much remains before the plan comes together in time for spring construction and completion in September 2023.

While the final design will largely incorporate Thrive's concepts, the parade memorial group also pointed to some potential revisions using other ideas presented to the commission in August.

Notable among those was TV celebrity Carmen De La Paz's three-piece sculpture, a design that featured a hands-and-heart theme.

“I pored over all these quite a lot, and I found elements of almost each proposal that I thought were really great,” said Commissioner Dan Taylor.

Bartlett, who said revisions will likely take place over the next few weeks, said he is looking forward to collaborating with De La Paz, who he previously worked with on a local board in 2021 and whose ideas in design he appreciates.

"She and I have spoken quite a bit, and so I'm really comfortable and happy that we're all joined together and we are going to move forward into something we are all passionately looking to give back to Waukesha," he said.

Despite the fact that the central design has been accepted, the plan for the two memorials is still in the earliest of stages.

"The wild thing is we're just getting started," Bartlett said. "Now we need to hire structural engineer. We need to hire a civil engineer. We'll have a landscape architect who can help us, and there will be a few other consultants."

The city has also encouraged the designers to individually talk with family members of the victims to see what they would like to see in the final design, Bartlett added.

Parade memorial fund is still seeking donations

At the Sept. 13 meeting, Rebecca Pederson, assistant to the mayor and city administrator, told the committee that it should shift its discussions toward fundraising. To date, less than $10,000 has been contributed to the memorial fund administered by the Waukesha County Community Foundation.

Thrive Architects estimated the project at between $818,000 to $964,000 for Grede Park and $150,000 and $180,000 for Main Street. But Bartlett doubted the actual costs would come close to that estimate, based on the willingness of residents to donate their time and materials to the effort.

Ultimately, the site plans would have to be approved by the city's Plan Commission, Community Development Director Jennifer Andrews told the parade commission.

The memorial planning process coincides with the anticipated trial of the man accused in the parade attack. Darrell Brooks Jr., 40, of Milwaukee, is facing 77 criminal counts and remains in custody on $5 million cash bail. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 3.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha Christmas Parade memorial designs approved by the city