flexiblefullpage -
billboard - default
interstitial1 - interstitial
catfish1 - bottom
Currently Reading

Pritzker Military Museum & Library announces finalist for Cold War Veterans Memorial

Building Team

Pritzker Military Museum & Library announces finalist for Cold War Veterans Memorial

Four finalists will move to Stage II.


By Pritzker Archives and Memorial Park Center | September 21, 2021
Orbits of Time
Courtesy Oyler Wu Collaborative

After launching a competition to design the new Cold War Veterans Memorial in Somers, Wisc., the Pritzker Military Museum & Library has narrowed the decision down to four concepts. The Cold War Veterans Memorial, when complete, will be a critical piece of the Pritzker Archives and Memorial Park Center (PAMPC).

The concepts were judged against criteria including individuality, relevance, and conceptualization. The challenge was to provide a conceptual design for the Cold War Veterans Memorial that embraces the mission statement, exemplifies the guiding vision, and achieves the design goals. The four finalists are from the U.S., Italy, Japan, and Jordan.

The finalists include:

Infinite life
Courtesy AMDL CIRCLE
  • INFINITE LIFE - Michele De Lucchi con Francesco Forcella (project architect), Nicholas Bewick, Junmei Liu, Emanuele Novembre, Guido Tarantola, Mayya Sargsyan of AMDL CIRCLE in Milan, Italy
    • Although this Memorial project was born out of the importance of respecting and honoring those that served during the Cold War period, we also see its relevance as a heroic symbol towards our continually evolving universe and the existence of human life. 
The Conflict
Courtesy m+j architect studio atelier
  • THE CONFLICT - Mai Abu-Shanab and Jalal  Al-Sadi of  m+j architect studio atelier in Amman, Jordan 
    • This cold war memorial is intended to honor individuals and groups and give a permanent recognition to accomplishments, as quietly made, by countless individuals and groups as they pursued the expansion of freedom and democracy, creating a place for reflection and remembrance, inspiring the public to perceive freedom for centuries to come.
Orbits of Time
Courtesy Oyler Wu Collaborative
  • ORBITS OF TIME - Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler of Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles, California, USA
    • The proposed design envisions a memorial that embodies the ideals and mission of Memorial Park, making more tactile a context that can’t be measured in a single name or event: only in glimpses of history. Within these glimpses is layered a timeline of both personal and collective experiences emblematic of the Cold War – a paradigm that rebalances the interconnected narratives of American innovation and service.
Eternal Circulation
Courtesy Shinsaku Munemoto & Associates
  • ETERNAL CIRCULATION - Shinsaku Munemoto of Shinsaku Munemoto & Associates, Architects in Kyoto, Japan
    • This memorial intends to preserve the memories, records, and achievements of the veterans in perpetuity. By uncovering the layer of land, one space separates into two. The space of the “past” underneath meets the layers of the veterans’ work and time, where one can relive the veterans’ history and memories of the Cold War. The satellite dish formed above forges the “present” space to transmit the histories and memories. Through the hole opened in the unfolded land, the archive is seen, bridging the “past” records to the “present,” creating an ETERNAL CIRCULATION of education and communication.

The finalists will now move to Stage II to evolve their concepts and create more fully defined designs by late February 2022. Stage II will include a virtual competition briefing, Q&A, mid-course review, and design exhibit. The winning design will be announced publicly in March 2022.

The finalists' submissions can be viewed here.

Related Stories

| Aug 11, 2010

Special Recognition: Triple Bridge Gateway, Port Authority Bus Terminal New York, N.Y.

Judges saw the Triple Bridge Gateway in Midtown Manhattan as more art installation than building project, but they were impressed at how the illuminated ramps and bridges—14 years in the making—turned an ugly intersection into something beautiful. The three bridges span 9th Avenue at the juncture where vehicles emerge from the Lincoln Tunnel heading to the Port Authority of New Yor...

| Aug 11, 2010

World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London

At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.

| Aug 11, 2010

Setting the Green Standard For Community Colleges

“Ohlone College Newark Campus Is the Greenest College in the World!” That bold statement was the official tagline of the festivities surrounding the August 2008 grand opening of Ohlone College's LEED Platinum Newark (Calif.) Center for Health Sciences and Technology. The 130,000-sf, $58 million community college facility stacks up against some of the greenest college buildings in th...

| Aug 11, 2010

School Project Offers Lessons in Construction Realities

Imagine this scenario: You're planning a $32.9 million project involving 112,000 sf of new construction and renovation work, and your job site is an active 32-acre junior-K-to-12 school campus bordered by well-heeled neighbors who are extremely concerned about construction noise and traffic. Add to that the fact that within 30 days of groundbreaking, the general contractor gets canned.

| Aug 11, 2010

CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights

It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.

| Aug 11, 2010

University of Arizona College of Medicine

The hope was that a complete restoration and modernization would bring life back to three neoclassic beauties that formerly served as Phoenix Union High School—but time had not treated them kindly. Built in 1911, one year before Arizona became the country's 48th state, the historic high school buildings endured nearly a century of wear and tear and suffered major water damage and years of...

| Aug 11, 2010

Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center

Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.

| Aug 11, 2010

200 Fillmore

Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell—a “style” made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as the backdrop for a popular public plaza and outdoor café called “The Beach.

| Aug 11, 2010

Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world

Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.

| Aug 11, 2010

High Tech High International used to be a military facility

High Tech High International, reconstructed inside a 1952 Navy metal foundry training facility, incorporates the very latest in teaching technology with a centerpiece classroom known as the UN Theater, which is modeled after the UN chambers in New York. The interior space, which looks more like a hip advertising studio than a public high school, provides informal, flexible seating areas, abunda...

boombox1 - default
boombox2 -
native1 -

More In Category



Giants 400

Top 75 Engineering Firms for 2023

Kimley-Horn, WSP, Tetra Tech, Langan, and IMEG head the rankings of the nation's largest engineering firms for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.


halfpage1 -

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021