In Orlando, Florida, this Memorial & Museum is intended to commemorate the shooting, in 2016, of the Pulse nightclub which left 49 dead. The French agencies CAAU – Coldefy & Associés Architectes Urbanistes (Thomas Coldefy and Isabel Van Haute), with the agency RDAI (Rena Dumas – partner) and the local agency HHCP are winners, in October 2019, of this international competition. Communicated.
The context of the competition
On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and many were affected in the Pulse nightclub shooting. The onePULSE Foundation was then formed to manage the design and construction of a Memorial & Museum dedicated to this tragedy.
The onePULSE Foundation wishes to create and support a memorial that opens hearts, a museum that opens minds, educational programs that open eyes and that offer scholarships and bequests that open doors. She wishes to establish a refuge and a place of healing in memory of the lives lost, saved and touched by tragedy.
She also wants to place the National Pulse Memorial & Museum at the location of the nightclub. The Museum is located 500m from Pulse. The Health Survivors Walk, linking the nightclub to the Orlando Health (Orlando Hospital), is the third element of the project.
Scheduled to open in 2022. The Pulse Memorial & Museum will be free and open to the public throughout the year.
An international competition was launched in March 2019 by the American firm Dovetail Design Strategists. It collected 68 proposals from 19 countries. Applications were narrowed down to six finalist teams whose architectural projects were the subject of a public exhibition in October 2019.
This exhibition was an opportunity for the public to leave comments: more than 2,300 were submitted, making it possible to enlighten the jury made up of stakeholders from the onePULSE Foundation, local elected officials, entrepreneurs, business leaders. opinions and renowned architects.
The project selected by the jury is that of the team made up of Coldefy with RDAI | HHCP Architects,
Xavier Veilhan, dUCKS sceno, Agence TER, Prof. Laila Farah. It was unveiled on October 30, 2019 at the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando.
The other five finalist teams were as follows:
– Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rene Gonzalez Architects avec Raymond Jungles, Inc. ;
– heneghan peng architects, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Sven Anderson & Pentagram ;
– MASS Design Group, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Sasaki, Sanford Biggers, Richard Blanco, Porsha Olayiwola ;
– MVRDV, Grant Associates, GSM Project et Studio Drift ;
– Studio Libeskind with Claude Cormier + Associés, Thinc, and Jenny Holzer.
The architectural proposal
Le Memorial
The building of the Pulse nightclub is preserved. Pulse is the center of gravity that radiates and transmits. It is also the pulse, the place where the strong events took place. It is the starting point that will transform hearts, minds and, more generally, the starting point for the development of SoDo District in Orlando.
Pulse is also the source. Water, an element of connection and appeasement, coming from nearby water points flows into a basin that surrounds the nightclub. Forty-nine colors, in memory of the 49 victims, surround it before radiating out into public spaces.
The Memorial site is surrounded by a protective canopy and a garden of 49 trees. A large space dedicated to celebrations and gatherings adjoins the nightclub building. This haven of peace and tranquility invites the visitor to an intimate journey and to open his consciousness.
The Museum
Next to the Memorial, the Museum, a catalyst for positive change, is a place of dialogue and education. He embodies OnePULSE’s credo “We will not let hate win”. At the entrance of SoDo District, it soars like a flower towards the sky, offers spaces for exchanges and meetings – vertical gardens, public squares and a rooftop promenade that offers a view of the Memorial and SoDo District.
Le Health Survivors Walk
Interactive sculptures in tribute to the victims of the tragedy line the Health Survivors Walk, the path traveled by the victims and first aid during the tragedy of June 12, 2016, from the nightclub to the hospital Orlando Health.
This journey actually continues beyond the hospital, to the Dr. Phillips Center for Perfomring Arts, thus joining the SoDo and Downtown districts.
Tree-lined paths for pedestrians, bicycles and a Pulse shuttle will connect the Memorial & Museum site to the train station. They will create a green loop that will surround the district and its future urban expansions.
«We are honored that our proposal for the National Pulse Memorial & Museum has been chosen by the onePULSE Foundation», Underlines Thomas Coldefy. “This deeply significant project reminds us to what extent architecture and landscape can influence our behavior and impact our society. It already transcends our entire team in a collective adventure and is the opportunity to overcome, together, the tragedy of June 12, 2016, its message of hatred, by proposing an architecture that will make way for a new reality of tolerance, respect, joy and loveHe said.
«We are convinced that this program, already remarkable for its approach, its ambition and its scope, will be a catalyst for change both through the experience it offers and through learning aimed at understanding others.», Concludes Julia Capp, architect and director of the RDAI agency.
Budget: $ 45M (around € 40M)
Surfaces :
– Memorial plot of 3966m²
– Museum plot 7365m²
– Musée : SDP : 4500m² – Parking : 300 pl.
Delivery scheduled for 2022
–
