World War One National Memorial

The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission sponsored an open competition to create a new World War One Memorial in Pershing Park, Washington DC. We collaborated with LAND COLLECTIVE to submit a design that transforms the existing park into both an urban amenity and place of national commemoration.

During World War I, No-Man’s Land emerged between opposing trenches. Shaped by relentless bombardment, it was a place of death, terror and annihilation where all traces of life were destroyed, leaving behind a landscape characterized by trenches, craters and mounds. Over the last one hundred years, the landscape has healed and the battleground has softened. This serves as inspiration for our memorial expression: a landscape that evokes World War I and healing that continues. It is the transformation of No-Man’s Land into a public place for all that creates a contemporary, living memorial.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Location: Washington, D.C.
Completed: 2015

TEAM MEMBERS

Paul Murdoch
Milena Murdoch
Alan Manning
Ian Rodgers

In association with LAND COLLECTIVE