The Minister of Canadian Heritage, on behalf of Tribute to Liberty, has revealed the five designs for the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa.
The Memorial to the Victims of Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge will recognize Canada’s international role as a place of refuge for people fleeing injustice and persecution. The Memorial will be built just west of the terraces of the Garden of the Provinces and Territories in Ottawa and will honour the millions who have suffered under communist regimes.
Last fall, the Department of Canadian Heritage re-launched the national design competition after the original competition elicited heated public debate. Some of the concern was related to its proposed site, a prominent location between Library and Archives Canada and the Supreme Court that since the 1920s had been reserved for a new building for the Federal Court. The new competition called for a monument placed on a grassed area approximately 500 square metres in size, located just west of the terraces of the Garden of the Provinces and Territories along Confederation Boulevard.
In November 2016, a jury shortlisted five design teams to create an emotionally compelling and sensitively designed Memorial in Canada’s Capital Region. The following teams were chosen to provide design proposals for the Memorial:
Team space2place
Jeff Cutler, landscape architect (Vancouver, BC) and Ken Lum, artist (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Team Mills
Karen Mills and Ben Mills, public art consultants; Silvano Tardella and Robert M. S. Ng, landscape architects; Jordan Söderberg Mills, artist (all from Toronto, ON); Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier, artists (London, U.K.)
Team Moskaliuk
Wiktor Moskaliuk, architect (Markham, ON); Claire Bedat, landscape architect (Washington, D.C.); Larysa Kurylas, artist (Washington, D.C.)
Team Raff
Paul Raff, artist and architect; Michael A. Ormston-Holloway, designer and certified arborist; Brett Hoornaert, landscape architect; Luke Kairys, landscape architect (all from Toronto, ON)
Team Reich+Petch Architects
Tony Reich, architect (Toronto, ON); Catherine Widgery, artist (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Matthew Sweig, landscape architect (Toronto, ON)
The winning design is expected to be announced in April 2017.