National Mall to get D.C.'s first public memorial for fallen journalists
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Image: Courtesy of Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation/John Ronan Architects
D.C.'s first public memorial honoring freedom of the press and fallen journalists is coming to the National Mall.
The big picture: The Fallen Journalists Memorial Fund, the group behind the project, was started a year after the 2018 Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis that killed five employees.
- The foundation was launched by David Dreier, a former congressman and chair of Tribune Publishing, which owned the Gazette at the time of the shooting.
- Congress approved the memorial in 2020, and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts gave the group the green light to begin designing last year.
The latest: The Fallen Journalists Memorial's first design concept renderings were released this week, and they show what would be Washington's first memorial made almost completely out of glass, per a release.
- The memorial would consist of pieces of horizontally stacked, solid glass elements representing fallen journalists. While seemingly laid in a random pattern, the elements would actually gather to form the site's center — a nod to the way journalists coalesce disparate facts to form a story.
- The glass memorial will look different from all angles, a reference to the many sides of a story journalists must consider to uncover the truth.
At the center will be a circular Remembrance Hall displaying the First Amendment's text.
- The structure will glow at night with a view of the Capitol in the background — a metaphor for the press' watchdog role.
- Once open, it will offer educational programming for visitors.
Zoom in: The memorial's proposed site is a triangular stretch of land bordered by Maryland Avenue, Third Street and Independence Avenue SW, near the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building.
- The project will be funded entirely by private donations, per a release.
What we're watching: The group's goal is to get final sign-off on the design by next year, break ground on the site in 2026 and finish it in 2028.
