Design Concepts Unveiled for Orlando Memorial Honoring Victims of Pulse Nightclub Shooting

With an abundance of outdoor space that includes promenades, public plazas, a reflecting pool and vertical gardens, Coldefy & Associés with RDA hopes the reimagined space transforms hearts, minds and inspire.

“In this haven of peace and tranquility, we discover the transformed nightclub, opening to the light and air, inviting us to traverse an intimate path; opening our consciousness,” the design team writes in their description.

The seven sections of Heneghan Peng Architects’s memorial represent the seven colors of the rainbow. The sections create a shared space, “honoring and protecting the 49 angels,” the firm writes. The structure “resonates with the energy of the nightclub” by including curves and walls tilting upwards to provide shade for visitors.

“We feel a deep connection to those taken and impacted, so for them we must never forget that Pulse nightclub was and should always remain brilliant, glittery, and gay,” Diller, Scofidio Rendro and Rene Gonzalez Architecture write in their narrative. Their memorial will include a contemplative sound garden of cypress trees and natural ponds while the museum will promote acceptance and educate “in the hope that one day this new center will prevent hateful events” such as the shooting.

“This ground, it is sacred ground,” MASS Design Group writes in their description. While the memorial gives space to the lives lost and the joy and freedom the club offered, the museum, which MASS has proposed to name The Museum for Equality, hopes to inspire activism.

For the memorial, MVRDV hopes to preserve the club’s structure and paint its exterior black, using gold specs to fill in damage and repairs. It will be a calm and quiet space for both collective mourning and peace, while the museum will be vibrant, with a structure that spells out “love.”

“Love is patient, love is kind… love is proud,” MVRDV writes in their narrative.

Studio Libeskind wants visitors to be able to see the museum’s tall structure from a great distance to signify hope. “A figure that really stands tall and proud,” Daniel Libeskind, founder of the firm, said in a promotional video.

The project will include a rainbow heart-shaped design with the club’s structure as a memorial and a “Survivors Walk” path. The museum will appear to be a “crystalline structure.”

“When light shines through a crystal you see a rainbow, the colors, the fullness, the white light breaks into diversity,” Lubeskind said.