FROM THE COMPETITION ENTRY:

The Oklahoma City Memorial is a sacred precinct. The Monument to Those Who Died is made of one hundred and sixty-eight cast glass columns that form an ellipse on the ground where the Murrah Building spilled onto 5th Street. The columns surround a reflecting pool of water, and a ceramic marker, cast from the red clay of Oklahoma, floats inside each fourteen foot tall column. The position of each ceramic marker is determined by the age of the victim, and together they scribe a rising line from youngest to oldest. Columns of pregnant women contain two forms. The Eternal Flame at the apex of the ellipse illuminates each glass column by means of fiber optics. Shimmering by day, glowing by night, the columns ensure that the memory and spirit of those who perished will always illuminate the City.

The survivors continue the task of recovery they began in the horror of April 19th. They bear witness for all of us, for all time. Names are inscribed on the white marble Survivors Wall, at the south side of the Journal Record Building near the Survivor Tree.

Rescue Plaza is the formal entrance to the Oklahoma City Memorial. Its open space provides an opportunity for visitors to prepare for the contemplation of the Memorial. The Rescue Monument evokes a crane boom, and it forms an entrance arch by being attached to the facade of the Oklahoma City Memorial Center. The mandate of this institution, to prevent future terrorism, is a hopeful rescue of the future from the horrors that have been witnessed at this site, and it manifests the will to triumph over evil.

The people of Oklahoma City, through their manifold acts of grace and heroism, and by their commitment to civic values in building this place of witness and memory, act as one to repair a shattered world.