FOCUS: Architect unveils Emanuel AME Church memorial design

Rendering from Calhoun Street of fellowship benches, fountain and congregation.  Credit:  Image courtesy Dbox for The Mother Emanuel Nine Memorial / Handel Architects

Staff reports  |  Architect Michael Arad revealed design plans July 15 for a permanent memorial honoring the victims of the 2015 shooting that left dead nine members of Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street.

Arad, the architect behind the National September 11 Memorial in New York, conveyed his inspiration for the Emanuel Nine Memorial at the church following a ceremony celebrating its 200th anniversary.

“The inspiration for this memorial draws on Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church as a historic place and as a congregation,” Arad said in a statement.  “Throughout its 200-year history, it has endured slavery, discrimination and racism. When worship and assembly were banned, the church resisted and provided a place of fellowship and sanctuary.

“The Emanuel Nine tragedy marks another dark moment for the church, though faith helped to heal and bring light into the darkness.”

According to a press release, the memorial honors the nine victims and five survivors of the June 17, 2015, tragedy, the largest racially-motivated mass murder in recent American history. Located on church grounds, the memorial features a courtyard with two fellowship benches, which face each other with high backs that arc up and around like sheltering wings.

“This memorial will honor the Emanuel Nine and celebrate the grace in forgiveness from the victims’ families, spirit of resiliency shown by the survivors, church members, the community of Charleston and the world by coming together as one,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. Eric S.C. Manning.  “Ultimately it will inspire people and communities everywhere to rise above racism and overcome hate with love.

At the center of the courtyard, the curves of the benches encircle a marble fountain where the names of the victims will be carved around the fountain’s edge. Water emanates from a cross-shaped source, filling the basin and gently spilling over the names of the nine. The opening between the benches toward the back of the courtyard reveals a cross above a simple altar, providing visitors a quiet place to linger in thought and prayer.

The memorial includes a survivors’ garden, which is accessed by a pathway from the courtyard. Dedicated to life and resiliency, the garden is surrounded by six stone benches and five trees, symbolizing the five survivors – the sixth signifying that the church is also a survivor.

• More: EmanuelNine.org.
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