Local Designers Win Global Contest for AIDS Memorial Park in NYC
A proposed park dedicated to the memory of New York City residents who lost their lives to AIDS took the next step forward on Thursday with the announcement that a design by Brooklyn’s Studio a+i called Infinite Forest has been selected for the project.
“Through this design, we hope not only to honor the profound losses and ongoing struggles of those affected by AIDS, but also to reflect the changing and infinite ways in which AIDS affects us personally and as a society,” said Studio a+i Principal & Co-Founder Mateo Paiva.
The park would sit in a triangle-shaped space bordered by Seventh Avenue, 12th Street and Greenwich Avenue in New York City’s West Village, across the street from the former St. Vincent's Hospital, known as the epicenter of New York City's AIDS epidemic.
The contest was juried by a 13-member panel that included designer Kenneth Cole and actress Whoopi Goldberg.
"The proposed AIDS Memorial Park commemorates the past while embracing the present and the future," said Jury Chair Michael Arad, Partner, Handel Architects and Designer of The National September 11 Memorial. "The winning design creates a space for reflection, awareness and recognition, while acknowledging the history of the disease.”
New York City's City Council will vote on the redevelopment for the site in late February or early March.