onePULSE Design Presentation

Posted on by Thor

onePULSE Foundation held three public presentations to give a detailed look at and solicit feedback on preliminary designs for the National Pulse Memorial, the Museum and Education Center, and the Orlando Health Survivors Walk. The first of the meetings was held at the Orlando Repertory Theatre (1001 East Princeton Street Orlando FL).

Following the presentation, representatives from the design team and onePULSE Foundation will answer questions from the audience. Attendees were also invited to submit written feedback on comment cards available at the meeting.

In October 2019, onePULSE Foundation selected Coldefy and Associés with RDAI, Orlando-based HHCP Architects, Xavier Veilhan, dUCKS scéno, Agence TER, and Prof. Laila Farah to design the National Pulse Memorial and Museum. Since October, the design team has been working closely with the onePULSE Foundation to develop a project timeline and master plan that will ensure design and construction is coordinated with other public improvements already planned by the city.

The concept design from Coldefy with RDAI | HHCP features water, greenery, and a reflecting
pool encircling the Pulse building. In memory of the 49 victims, a palette of 49 colors
lines the basin and radiates towards a peaceful garden planted with 49
trees. The design also envisions a spiraling, open-air museum and
educational center with vertical gardens, public plazas, and a rooftop
promenade. The museum was designed with a flower like an Easter Lilly in mind but it tends to look like a nuclear power plant cooling tower with an undulating upper rim.

Thomas Coldefy stood at the podium as I sketched. He traded off with associates Julia Capp, Zoltan Neville, and Michael Chatham, as they each outlined various phases of the design,  The club itself will be transected by a walkway with granite walls allowing people who want to walk through the space, the option to do that. The removed section will become a part of the Pulse Museum and the club itself will remain empty for no but renovated and air conditioned with no views inside. Musical vibrations are to be present in the walk through when you tough the granite walls. The project is slated to cost almost $49 million dollars and construction could begin within a year.

Pulse Temporary Memorial Dedication

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The interim memorial design was created by the team of by Kody Smith, Christina Hite, and Greg Bryla, of the landscape architecture firm of Dix.Hite + Partners, and David Stone of Phil Kean Design, all of who worked closely with onePULSE Foundation’s memorial task force. Pam Schwartz of the Orange County Regional History Center worked on supplying the hundreds of photos from the history museum’s collection used on a winding wall that surrounds the club. Many of local photographer J.D. Casto‘s photos cover the wall. He was at the GLBT Center on the morning following the shooting and his photos document the outpouring of love and support that followed this horrible tragedy.

The scene was already crowded when I arrived at the club. Families of victims and survivors were seated. Since I had my own artist stool, I set up in front of one of the new trees on site and started to sketch. I focused on Christina Hite while she spoke at the podium. Greg Bryla is a dedicated Urban Sketcher, so I was pleased to know he had a hand in helping design this temporary memorial. An unexpected aspect of the temporary memorial is that there is a window in the surrounding wall allowing visitors to see the spot where the club was breached by the swat team so that the hostages held in the bathrooms could escape. Bullet holes litter the brickwork around the blast hole. This is where the terrorist was finally killed.

The architect firm of Coldefy and Associés has recently won the deign competition to create a permanent memorial at this site. Their design surrounds the Pulse Nightclub building with a pool and fountain that has 49 colors in concentric circles radiating from the pool’s center. The typical rainbow, (ROYGBIV) only has 7 colors. If you multiply that by 7 you get 49 colors. Another aspect of their design that I like is a circular canopy that supplies shade for anyone visiting the site. They also had elegantly incorporated a wall separating the quiet space from the sound of traffic on Orange Avenue. The most striking feature is that the club is cleaved in half, creating a canyon like space that people can walk through. 49 trees will cover the site creating a garden to celebrate life.

The Pulse Museum design looks a bit like a futuristic reactor. It has a slatted white exterior that is squeezed in the middle with an undulating
roof profile. Glimpses inside show a twisting staircase and plants,
echoing features of the memorial, and a large circular opening that
floods natural light into the space. There are large public areas where the community can gather to learn and have events. It is an exciting design that would immediately become a defining landmark of the SODO area. Green spaces radiate from the club beautifying the district. Only time will tell how much of this amazing design will become reality. The Museum and Memorial are both intended to open in 2022.