Located in Minnesota’s fourth largest city, the Bloomington Veterans Memorial is a competition-winning effort to embody what it means to be a veteran and to have a loved someone who is a veteran.
This design competition effort was part of a firmwide collaboration which included more than 100 employees in dialogue with the community of veterans in both our Minneapolis community and throughout the company. In the charette group were veterans of every U.S. conflict since the Korean War. The result is a project that connects the veteran community with each other and the larger purpose of military service. Using landscaping, spatial connections and an expressive sculptural form as an armature for storytelling, the design for Bloomington Veterans Memorial celebrates the individuals who have served, the six branches of the military that they represent, the sacrifices of their families, the support of their home community of Bloomington, and the greater ideal that unifies them all.
Understanding the Site
Working with Veterans to Establish Design Goals
Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, our design process began with a series of video conferences with veterans. We sought to understand what resonates about memorials that they have experienced in the past. Out of these conversations, we hit upon several reference points that went on to inform our design. These included:
1 The battlefield cross – A tradition spanning American military action since World War II, the battlefield cross is a symbolic marker erected on the battlefield or in the base camp to honor a fallen soldier. It is composed of the soldier’s rifle, which is stuck into the ground or into the soldier’s boots, and topped with their helmet. Its purpose is to show honor and respect for the dead at the battle site.
2 The photographs of soldiers – A core element of a soldier’s funeral, the tradition of photography helped the design team establish the importance of telling personal stories. Who is the individual soldier, who loved them, and what did they do?
3 The 2/28 BCT Fallen Warrior Memorial – Originally constructed in Ramadi, Iraq, this obelisk memorializes National Guard soldiers from the Iron Brigade who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fabricated from damaged military equipment, this precedent established for our team the visceral connection many veterans feel with the materiality of combat.
4 The ramp ceremony – An emotionally powerful form of memorial service for a fallen soldier, the ramp ceremony is held at the airport prior to the departure of the aircraft carrying the deceased person's body, or for its arrival at the deceased's home base. This reference point gave our team a window into the formal language of grief and honor established during a deployment.
The stories we heard in our outreach established the fact that every veteran views a memorial in their own personal way. For this reason, it became important to walk the line between storytelling and narrative, being specific while proposing a design open-ended enough to allow visitors to impart their own meaning to the experience.
Initial Design Explorations
We studied several options during our rapid charette process, which was about two weeks in duration. While each of these iterative concepts differ from the eventual final design, each one sheds light on some a facet of our design goals that carried through to the completed project.
Loop – Our initial explorations considered a series of experiences that could be dispersed to engage various components of the site – from the path, to the pond, to the ceremonial lawn. This study established the importance of focusing on a “journey” for visitors that would unfold in sequence across a series of experiential nodes.
Ramp – The phenomenon of the ramp ceremony suggested to our team the idea of a sculptural form that could be translated into a vessel or container for relics and stories. We studied the idea of the ramp projecting out overtop the pond, reinforcing the site axis.
Light and Water – We studied the idea of engaging the pond directly by using light and water in combination. This established the use of formal and symbolic visual elements that would evolve throughout the pronounced seasonal changes typical of Minnesota.
Tensegrity and Aggregate – Certain themes were common to all our conversations with veterans, including the ideas of duty, service, teamwork, and being part of something bigger than oneself. From an architectural standpoint, the idea of a tensegrity structure suggested itself, referencing the interconnection of different branches of the military, members of a unit, missions, and the invisible structure linking soldiers with their communities at home. As in a tensegrity structure, the military represents many parts working in unison to reach harmony.
Similar to the tensegrity idea, we explored the idea of granular spatial formations (aggregate) which interconnect and lock into each other, creating a structure stronger than its parts.
Branches – We explored methods of uniting references to the six branches of the military, which in wartime connect to uphold a central symbolic element. In this study, six columns representing military branches face a singular formal element at the focal point.
Paths – One of the stronger experiential ideas, we considered the parallel paths walked by soldiers and their families during wartime, which are separated for a time but joined by an invisible bond. While the wall separating two paths was discarded, the idea of parallel paths carried through the final design.
Final Design Concept
The final design concept for Bloomington Veterans Memorial distils many of the ideas present in our initial conversations and design studies into a single cohesive experience. Our design divides the landscape along the pond into two paths, representing the journey of the veteran and the parallel journey of their loved ones and communities back home.
Between the two paths, a sculptural form made of six interconnected bands emerges from the ground, forming a graceful, compound curve before diving back to the ground plane and merging again.
Attached to the six bands, dangling elements resembling dog tags are embedded with the stories of individual veterans. These can be QR codes leading to a website, written message sent between families and veterans during their service, or simply the names and dates of the fallen. In this way, the sculptural form becomes an armature for storytelling.
Along the pond, which is the veteran’s path, six circular benches, each adorned with the insignia of a military branch, offer space to sit, reflect, and share stories. Dividing the two paths, a mound of earth is planted with grasses native to Minnesota, representing home. Although separate, the two paths remain in parallel and connected, reflecting the enduring connection between veterans and those who sacrifice for them back home.
Between the two paths, the sculptural form which has merged beyond its initial expression remains visible at the ground plane, leading visitors to a gathering area where the sculpture again reaches into the sky, becoming a flagpole. Formed from the roots of six individual bands, the flagpole becomes an embodiment of the six military branches supporting a larger idea.
The flag anchors a paved clearing which will be used for gatherings and ceremonies all year, including on Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Beyond the flagpole, at the terminus, a light installation draws visitors toward the end of the path.
