Location: Charlotte, North Carolina

Client: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Status: Completed in Spring 2023

Area: 18,000 SF

Team: TEN x TEN, Hypersonic, Susan Hatchell Landscape Architecture, TranSystems, Engineered Designs Inc., Lynch Mykins Structural Engineers, Heartland Contracting, 35 North, Civility Localized

On April 30th, 2019, Reed Parlier and Riley Howell lost their lives, four students were wounded, and classmates, families, friends, and an entire community were forever changed by a terrible event at UNC-Charlotte. In the wake of this tragedy, Niner Nation and the City of Charlotte, are united with the strength, resilience, and hope that is illuminated by this memorial.

Remembrance is an act, a ritual, and an engagement with the past. Grounded by themes of illumination and healing, the Constellation Garden Remembrance Memorial aims to make remembrance visible and be held in the light, to strengthen the community through human connection, to acknowledge the magnitude of loss, and to embrace an optimistic and hopeful future.

The memorial includes an interactive sculpture made of large steel arcs grounded with six pillars, one to represent each person killed and wounded. The crisscrossing arcs rise 25’ above a white granite plaza, creating a voluminous ceiling that hovers above a circular gathering space embraced by planted landforms and an arc of trees, flowers, and plants. Two narrow, arcing paths unfurl from the plaza, passing through lush native gardens that bloom white in the spring to commemorate the anniversary of the shooting and purple in the fall to welcome students back to campus. Sculpted stone pebble seats sit below the constellation and are designed to hold a reclined body comfortably – smooth and soft.

A web of thin cables is anchored by the arcs and holds an array of lights, suspended against the sky. These lights are frozen in a map of the constellations of stars in the night sky on April 30, 2019, at a moment when time stopped for all of those affected by this tragedy. Reed and Riley’s pillars are wrapped with commemorative bands that, when touched, send a kinetic wave of increased light intensity through the constellation above, signifying the network of those affected by gun violence. Light ripples quietly and slowly across the sculpture, representing the ever-present constellation of trauma, pain, and loss caused by gun violence.