The design competition was launched in March 2001, with competition entries to be submitted by late May-before Memorial Day.  An impressive jury was assembled by Professional Advisor, Jim Walters, Bravura, Inc. to select a winning design.  They included:

• Lee H. Skolnick (Architect), New York
• Grady Clay (Consulting Editor), Louisville, Kentucky
• Ed Hamilton (Sculptor), Louisville, Kentucky
• Elizabeth Meyer (Landscape Architect), Charlottesville, Virginia
• LtCol Charles McLaurine (USMC-Ret), Patriots Peace Memorial Committee

There were forty entries submitted, and after deliberating for a full day, the jury reached a unanimous verdict.  They selected a submission by David D. Quillin of Berlin, Maryland for the commission.  Following the selection, the architecture firm of Bravura, Inc. of Louisville, which had administered the competition, undertook the difficult task of turning paper architecture into reality.  This was no small task, as the original construction budget of $350,000 left little room for much flexibility.  One of the first things to change was the facade, originally conceived as limestone, but changed to a light-toned masonry which still provided a subtle tectonic effect.  The construction company (American Contracting and Services, Inc., Jeffersonville, Indiana) also went the extra mile in finding subcontractors who had been low bidders.  In the end, a final $50,000 grant gave the sponsor the funding it needed to go ahead with the project.  Extra funding came in at the end of the project for landscaping and site improvements.

Although the competition site could be viewed as anything but contemplative in nature before construction began, the final verdict confirmed the opinion of the jurors that this location could also function well as a memorial, with the right design.  A quiet pond separated the memorial from golfing activities, and a line of trees helped shield it from a busy thoroughfare.  The words of juror, Elizabeth Meyer, spoken a year previously before any bricks and mortar existed, turned out to be prophetic: “The project is powerful on two levels.  First, its enclosure and elevation above the ground create a sacred, dignified space for a memorial on a site that is full of distractions—ball games, golf putting, bicycles, etc.”

As a contextual piece in the landscape, the memorial resembles the architecture of its neighbors along the river in that the main structure rises above grade level.  Almost all of the neighboring homes and buildings are built one story above ground level to accommodate the flood plain.  Dan Church, a member of the Bravura, Inc. team, remarked that none of the designs of the other competition finalists allowed for this factor to the same extent as the Quillin design.  And by doing so, it accomplished something else:  it allowed those who entered the interior of the memorial the opportunity to view the names—only legible from the inside—in complete solitude. 

Although the neighboring pond did not belong to the site boundaries, one would think that it automatically was part of the grand plan, as it also provided an aura of serenity to the memorial.  This competition was successful from start to finish – with the obvious budget constraints, it was built within the appointed time period, and it serves not only the families of those who died in the service of their country in peacetime but is a project the community as a whole can be proud of.  As one of the better examples of memorial architecture to appear since the Vietnam Memorial, it easily surpasses Eisenman’s Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and Washington’s World War II Memorial as an example of what modern memorial architecture can be and should be.

“A New Kind of Memorial – Louisville Honors Servicemen Who Gave Their Lives in Peacetime,” Competitions Magazine, Fall 2002