Thinc recently participated in the National Pulse Memorial & Museum International Design Competition, developed and led by Dovetail Design Strategists, the country’s leading independent architect selection firm.

The Vison

The vision of the onePULSE Foundation is to establish a sanctuary of healing and a beacon of hope by memorializing the lives taken, the lives saved and all the lives affected by the Pulse nightclub tragedy of June 12, 2016—ensuring Pulse’s legacy of love lives on forever. They hope to create and support a memorial that opens hearts, a museum that opens minds, educational programs that open eyes, and legacy scholarships that open doors.

The Competition

The National Pulse Memorial & Museum International Design Competition was structured in two stages.

Stage I was an open call—where architects from across the globe were invited to form and lead a visionary, multi-disciplinary team to include urban design, landscape design, and exhibition design professionals, as well as artists. The competition attracted 68 teams representing 19 countries. In total, 168 firms and 47 individual artists participated on those teams.

A selection committee of onePULSE Foundation stakeholders chose six world-class teams that strongly displayed empathetic sensibilities and a deep understanding of the complexity of this project. These six shortlisted teams were invited to participate in Stage II of the competition where they were asked to develop concept designs that make one message clear: We will not let hate win.

The Project

The project features three components:

Memorial

The National Pulse Memorial will be a sanctuary of hope and healing that honors the 49 lives that were taken, their families, the 68 injured victims, all the affected survivors, and the first responders and healthcare professionals who cared for the injured. The memorial will be free and open to the public year-round, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Museum

The Pulse Museum will educate, enlighten, inspire reflection and rumination, and start conversations that will change mindsets. Together, the National Pulse Memorial & Museum will be a tribute to all those affected, will engage and educate visitors from around the world, and will serve as a catalyst for positive change.

Survivors Walk

The Orlando Health Survivors Walk will trace the three-block journey many victims and first responders took the night of the tragedy to get to Orlando Health-Orlando Regional Medical Center. It will extend farther north to end at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. As an open, public space, Orlando Health Survivors Walk will tell the Pulse story and have a positive urban impact.

Perpetual Light

Thinc was very fortunate to be part of an extremely talented team comprised of the world-renowned architecture studio, Studio Libeskind with Baker Barrios Architects, Montréal-based landscape architects, Claude Cormier + Associés, and neo-conceptual artist, Jenny Holzer.

Our team's submission, entitled "Perpetual Light" is a direct response to the onePULSE mission. The Perpetual Light never extinguishes—it is the light of the 49 Angels, the survivors, first responders, and community. We created three integrated, yet individually distinctive elements within the Greater Pulse District. We imbued each site with meaning and symbolism that radiates from onePULSE.

The Memorial is a place that first and foremost celebrates the lives of those who were taken, and communicates the values of Pulse—diversity, unity and acceptance. The heart-shaped design is contoured by 366 rainbow gates, each for a day of the 2016 calendar year. The Memorial is an active and deeply intimate experience for families, survivors and first-responders. We preserve the existing nightclub site as the Broken Heart and it is the sacred space of the project—where we illuminate the words of love and loss. The Memorial spills out and connects to the Survivors Walk following the same path of the heroic acts of that night.

The Museum proclaims our humanity by embodying the human form as an iconic landmark for the Pulse district. It is a figure of hope that connects the terrestrial to the celestial as the tower ascends upward. It culminates in a pulsating rainbow beacon of 49 colored columns of light, activated by human touch. The observation deck is a place to take in the entirety of the district and feel the eternal pulse of humanity.

After the Concept Design Viewing and assembling a public comment summary for the competition Jury, the Jury convened and selected the winning team that will work with onePULSE Foundation to further develop and build the National Pulse Memorial & Museum design. While our submission was not selected, we are extremely proud of the work we did and the exceptional concept that we produced in collaboration with our creative partners.