Highlands, NY design plan; Steve Vecchione, PE and Gary Kroessig, WTC United Family Group Memorial; Staten Island Botanical Garden Healing Garden design plan
By David Kamp and Anne Wiesen

The following considerations are guidelines for the planning and design of Living Memorials. Each Living Memorial site will be unique and each visitor will bring an individual perception, ability and need. These recommendations are intended to help understand the unique qualities of each site and participant. Our goal is to insure that the design of each Living Memorial express a sensitivity and respect for both site and participant, acknowledging the constraints and opportunities in each to create a more fully enriching experience.

The process requires you to think broadly along the following four lines:

  • The site: Where will the Living Memorial be located?
  • The participants: Who will be using it?
  • The goals and program: What do you want to accomplish there and how will that be done?
  • The budget: What funds do you have to work with?

Essentially we are creating opportunities - opportunities for each individual to interact with the Living Memorial and with Nature in their own way, on their own terms and at their own pace. We are creating opportunities for remembering and honoring those who have been lost; minimizing feelings of isolation and loneliness; for release and closure; and creating opportunities for enhancing a sense of self and community.

To accomplish this we will focus on the individual. We will emphasize maintaining an attention to detail in the individual experience and perspective. And we will stress a design approach that encompasses all the senses; or giving those impaired by illness, age or disability, the richness and delight of experiencing a precious few. It will include creating a place to think about the ordinary and extraordinary moments in life. It will include the perspective from a wheelchair and the perspective of an individual needing the assistance of a walker or cane, or the sense of routine – or exhilaration – in those walking unassisted. It will include the perspectives of children, teenagers, the middle aged and the elderly. And it involves understanding that those needs change over time. It also means understanding the site, as well as the physical and fiscal parameters of the Living Memorial’s development, use and long-term maintenance.