Design for Sandy Hook Memorial Selected

John Hill

14. August 2018

Image: SWA Group, courtesy of Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission

Earlier this month the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission selected the winning design in a competition for a permanent memorial that will honor the 26 children and adults who died as a result of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

Five years after the Commission was created to create a memorial, its members voted unanimously for "The Clearing" designed by Daniel Affleck and Ben Waldo of San Francisco's SWA Group. The scheme was one of more than 180 designs submitted in the competition, and one of three designs determined as finalists earlier this summer.

The design by Affleck and Waldo features a network of curving pathways that lead to a small fountain with a Sycamore tree in its center. The names of the deceased would be carved into the stone pieces forming the edge of the fountain.

Image: SWA Group

The memorial will be located on Riverside Road, on five acres (two hectares) of land donated for the memorial and located just north of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Following the shooting, the Newtown School District decided to demolish the old school and erect a new one, which was designed by Svigals + Partners and opened in 2016 with the same name and address.

Following the Commission's selection of "The Clearing," the memorial design moves to the Newtown Board of Selectmen for approval. Their vote on the $250,000 memorial is expected next month. The process is planned to culminate with a dedication of the memorial on 14 December 2019, the seventh anniversary of the shooting.