Highland Park working group has recommendation for place-of-remembrance designer

The team tasked to find a firm with place-of-remembrance designs will honor those killed, injured and otherwise impacted by the July 4, 2022 Highland Park shooting has narrowed its hunt to one of four firms shortlisted for the project. 

SWA Group — a San Francisco-based architecture and landscape design firm that created a memorial in Newtown, Connecticut to honor victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting — got the project working group’s initial nod. Its members touted SWA’s ability to handle the project from start to finish, as well as its familiarity with what Highland Park officials refer to as trauma-informed community engagement.  

At the group’s Aug. 27 session, members reviewed their takeaways from the interviews held with each firm over the last two weeks in August. City Manager Ghida Neukirch said the group’s recommendation of SWA will be part of an official update set to go to City Council’s next Committee of the Whole session on Sept. 25.  

Recommending SWA does not necessarily mean hiring the firm is set in stone. Mayor Nancy Rotering and Councilmember Tony Blumberg made it clear that their personal assessments of SWA’s response to the city’s April 30 request for qualifications, also known as RFQs, will only be one factor in the city’s eventual decision.

“(The interviews were) just to get to know the design teams. … This discussion is based simply on those,” Rotering said.

The time until Sept. 25 allows the working group to get further input about the finalists from everyone impacted by the 2022 shooting — victims’ families, survivors, community members, first responders and others — Neukirch said.

She added the group’s goal is to eventually choose a firm, “that can get us from start to the finish line,” creating an accessible place for remembrance, solace and reflection at the Laurel Park and rose garden, 1709 St. Johns Ave., the site of the current temporary place of remembrance.

The winning firm’s team will also be expected to design and complete a smaller, more subtle place of remembrance at the downtown Port Clinton Plaza. 

Seventeen firms responded to the city’s RFQ request by the May 30 deadline, and the working group met with their representatives on June 18, Neukirch said. The last of the roughly 20-minute interviews with the four final firms took place earlier on Aug. 27.

Blumberg praised SWA, saying, “I felt they were most likely to have a successful positive reaction from the community, and the different stakeholders, victims and families who lost somebody, people who were injured and others impacted.”

He added that he was impressed with their sensitivity, and their understanding that some tension exists between people who want the secondary Port Clinton Plaza memorial and those who don’t want to be reminded of the tragedy in that downtown location. 

“This [firm] seems to be the most responsive to those issues.” Blumberg said. “I felt they were most likely to reach the appropriate balance.”

Rotering agreed, saying SWA had 65 years of experience and a large number of professional team members who could handle the project from start to finish. 

“Their main group is in San Francisco, but … they understand our community and have spent time here,” she said.

Rotering also liked what she called “a strong sense of seasonality” that could result in memorials that aren’t bare of welcome in winter. 

In addition to SWA, the working group interviewed representatives of studioSTIGSGAARD, a New York design firm that also got high marks from them. The company developed a memorial to the victims and survivors of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. Both Blumberg and Rotering said they were impressed with the firm’s professionalism and sensitivity.

The two remaining finalists include Chicago-based Site Design Group and Gordon Huether Studio of Napa, California. 

The journey toward creating a memorial to honor the seven people killed, those injured, and others impacted by the July 4, 2022 shooting began only months after the tragedy. In November 2022, Highland Park set up the temporary remembrance site. The working group, which includes Rotering, Blumberg and Neukirch, as well as the city’s resiliency manager and representatives from the Park District of Highland Park and the Josselyn mental health organization was formed in the fall of 2023. 

The group recommended hiring a consultant to help with the search for a permanent site. That consultancy, Chicago-based Do Tank, recommended the rose garden and Port Clinton locations, after hearing from victims’ families, and other groups impacted by the shooting. In April of this year, the City Council agreed with the dual site concept.

Resident Mary Seyfarth urged the working group to consider upgrading and modernizing the temporary rose garden remembrance site, rather than choosing a project that she worried could damage the garden.

Like Rotering, resident Michael Cohn said that he wouldn’t want any final design to lack welcoming aspects in colder months.

The RFQ requirements and presentations from all four finalists, including the videotaped finalist interviews, are available at the city’s resiliency division page, and to view and download. 

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.