Arts & Entertainment
Chicago Architect Unveils Design for National Memorial in DC Dedicated to Fallen Journalists
A design rendering of the remembrance hall area set for a national memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated to fallen journalists. It was designed by Chicago-based firm John Ronan Architects. (Courtesy of Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation / John Ronan Architects)
A Chicago-based design firm and the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation unveiled designs Tuesday for the first national memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated to journalists who lost their lives while doing their jobs and in service to press freedom.
Chicago architect John Ronan, who leads the local design firm John Ronan Architects, was chosen earlier this year to design the memorial following a yearlong selection process.
“Rather than an object to observe, I wanted the memorial to be a place to experience,” Ronan said during a Tuesday press briefing. “It’s framed as a journey of discovery that unfolds slowly space by space, like a journalist’s story unfolds line by line, casting the visitor in the role of investigative journalist, pursuing truth wherever it leads.”
The design consists of solid glass elements, which Ronan said represent ideas of transparency, journalists shedding light on issues obscured in darkness and explaining what’s difficult to comprehend by making the opaque become clear. Each of the approximately 300 solid glass elements featured in the design would be handmade and weigh more than a ton.
(Courtesy of Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation / John Ronan Architects)
The memorial’s glass elements would emanate a soft glow at night that pairs with a brightly lit U.S. Capitol dome coming into view, which Ronan said is meant to signify the watchdog role that journalists play in a democracy.
The glass elements lead to a space at the heart of the site that acts as a remembrance hall. A circular glass in the hall’s center displays the text of the First Amendment. The design also includes seating and areas intended for classrooms to gather and for reporters to do live shots.
John Ronan Architects has received multiple awards for its buildings in Chicago including the Poetry Foundation, Gary Comer Youth Center and the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Ronan is also a professor at the IIT College of Architecture and a past recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award.
The selection of John Ronan Architects was overseen by a 10-person committee led by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger. The committee received more than 50 proposals from architects and designers from the U.S. and abroad.
(Courtesy of Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation / John Ronan Architects)
The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation launched in 2019 during the first anniversary of the Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, which killed five people.
“The risk to the free press and the dangers often faced in protecting and documenting the truth are present and ongoing,” Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation President Barbara Cochran said. “Soon, this memorial will honor journalists who sacrificed their lives, and it will be a monument to America’s commitment to freedom of the press.”
The memorial will be built at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The National Mall is home to several major U.S. monuments and museums and is often nicknamed “America’s front yard.”
The design concept will be presented for review to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday. The National Capital Planning Commission will also review the concept on Oct. 3.
The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation hopes to get final approval of the design by mid-2025 and begin construction in 2026, Cochran said. The foundation also aims to dedicate the memorial in June 2028 on the 10th anniversary of the Capital Gazette attack.
(Courtesy of Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation / John Ronan Architects)
Contact Eunice Alpasan: @eunicealpasan | 773-509-5362 | [email protected]
