Finalist
Project name: Collier Memorial
Project location: Cambridge
Firm name: Höweler + Yoon Architecture
Jury comments: The Collier Memorial’s place in Boston’s canon is a difficult one. It is dedicated to Officer Sean Collier who lost his life in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. The dark granite abstraction carves out a sculptural space—a moment for contemplation—beneath the strength of its arch and open to all passersby. Designed with the input of the MIT community—including members of their police force—the structure expands the reach of its impact beyond the built structure, incorporating multiple voices in the design process. The Collier Memorial is a singular marriage of historic craft—a vaulted arch system made of massive blocks—and contemporary practice—the development of specific software to make the arch’s engineering possible. This, in combination with the way it addresses questions of memory, makes the Collier Memorial at once timeless and “of its time.”
Client: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Consultants: AHA Consulting Engineers; Francesca Bolognini; Feldman Land Surveyors; G&C Concrete Construction; Gaston Electrical Co. Inc.; Marianna Gonzalez; Hanover Pavers; Hayward Baker; Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design; James W. Flett Co. Inc.; Corentin Fivet; Anna Kaertner; Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering; Liberty Construction; Cecile Lu; McPhail Associates; MIT Construction Management Team; Nitsch Engineering; Ochsendorf DeJong and Block Consulting Engineers; Phoenix Bay State Construction Company; William Plunkett; Quarra Stone Company, LLC; Richard Burck Associates; RSE Associates; Sean Collier Permanent Memorial Committee; Suffolk Construction; Valleycrest Landscape Development; Virginia Mist Group; Euipoom Estelle Yoon