A permanent memorial to the Parkland 17: Panel to decide among 6 designs

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A panel that will choose a monument to the 17 who died in Parkland hopes one of six final proposals creates a place for peace after six years of sorrow.

A location has been selected: A 1-acre site on the border of Parkland and Coral Springs at the former Heron Bay Golf Club. The land, which will house a permanent memorial to the students and teachers killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, was donated by the North Springs Improvement District, which provides water treatment and stormwater management in northwest Broward County.

The six proposals were posted last week on the Parkland 17 Memorial Foundation website. Some recommend an enclosed space; others offer structures that are open to the elements. Several are circular; some have reflecting pools. One is in the shape of a heart; another resembles a tear.

All will present the 14 students and three school staff members who died on Feb. 14, 2018, as the people they were, without referencing events that have happened since, said Tony Montalto, vice chair of the foundation. His daughter, Gina, was 14 when she was killed at Stoneman Douglas in the massacre, one of the worst in U.S. history. The shooter, a former Stoneman Douglas student, opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, killing the 17 and wounding 17 others.

“The memorial will honor who the victims were before the tragedy,” Montalto said. “When you think of the teachers and coaches who died, all gave of themselves to the community. That should be remembered. They were bright shining lights.”

Efforts to memorialize this catastrophe have come in spontaneous and sporadic waves over the past six years. At the first prom after the shooting, organizers created a tribute near the entrance to the ballroom with pictures of the deceased that were surrounded by couches and designed as a space to sit and think, a quiet place apart from the ballroom’s musical clamor.

Parkland’s Pine Trails Park also has become a place where the community goes to grieve. Hundreds visit on Feb. 14 each year, strolling through rows of black-and-white portraits of the 17 victims. This year’s commemoration is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. (More details available at cityofparkland.org.)

While emotional ceremonies honor the dead each year on Feb. 14, organizers of the Parkland 17 Memorial hope to create a permanent gathering place for mourning and healing. The panel began seeking proposals in January 2023 for spaces that need only moderate maintenance in Florida’s heat and include a place to sit, as well as landscaping, pedestrian access and a tribute to each victim. The artists were invited to “be a part of our collective healing process by extending compassion and empathy along with their creative designs,” according to the call for proposals.

As per the instructions to the artists, the student activism that followed the shooting and anger about the trial of the shooter should not have a place at the monument. The panel also requested that the proposals not include references to guns, literal depictions of the victims, religious or political statements, or references to anything else that has happened since the tragedy.

Among the finalists is Gordon Huether, a public project designer from Napa, California. His studio proposed a circular seating area with a fountain at the center, surrounded by 17 limestone obelisks and 17 palm trees.

“I look at a project and try to understand who it’s for,” said Huether, who has been on teams that designed a Sept. 11 memorial in California and a police memorial in Oklahoma City. “It’s not about me, it’s about the people who will experience it on a daily basis. I’m a minimalist. I find that saying less is more powerful.”

Another finalist proposal comes from Jessica Lieberman, an interior and landscape designer from Parkland, and Rebecca Bradley, a landscape architect in Fort Lauderdale.

Lieberman, who has been on teams that designed resorts in the Caribbean as well as streetscape and outdoor lighting projects in Lauderhill and Fort Lauderdale, said this project was deeply personal. Her 17-month-old son, a twin, had died a year before the Stoneman Douglas tragedy.

“I was there in Parkland that day that everything happened. I got the Code Red on my phone and my heart broke all over again,” Lieberman said. The brother of the twin who had died “was at preschool that day by the high school, and I was frantic. I said to myself, ‘I can’t lose another child.’ ”

Lieberman said her design is inspired by memories of that day and of her lost son, for whom she founded a charity, Jacob’s Joy. The structure is shaped like a heart with angel’s wings coming out of its side “to comfort it,” she said. Seventeen pillars surround the heart and a raised water feature cascades from the bottom, “bringing in the look of the Everglades and the sound of water that is so comforting,” she said.

The finalists will soon begin making presentations to the foundation board. The board is planning to survey the public and the victims’ families before deciding on a winner.

A cost and timeline for the project have not yet been determined; the foundation wanted to see the proposals before figuring out a budget, Montalto said.

For more information or to make a donation, go to Parkland17.org.

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