Winners to be honored for Worcester firefighters memorial
November 19, 2004
Contact:
Link McKie
+1-617-373-8324
+1-617-373-8773 (fax)
l.mckie@neu.edu
WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee will honor the winning designer for the Worcester firefighters memorial and the four other finalists at an awards ceremony Tuesday, Nov. 23, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
A blue-ribbon jury selected Gala Simon Associates Inc. of Watertown from among five finalists to design the $3-million to $5-million memorial and the memorial park surrounding it. Gala Simon’s design features six encircled columns leaning toward each other and shooting shafts of light into a common point in the night.
A design dominated by a single stone column and a black granite slab listing the names of the six firefighters to be honored, set beside Salisbury Pond, won second place for Stephen Stimson Associates of Falmouth. Third place was awarded to Benjamin Kou of Cambridge for a memorial highlighted by six pillars placed on a plaza in the relative positions where the bodies of the six firefighters were recovered from the wreckage of the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. The designs of Ben Smoot of Brookline and Chuni Wang of Waltham placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
The awards ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. with a breakfast. After breakfast, the winner and other finalists will be presented plaques and their prizes.
Gala Simon will receive $30,000 and has been given the opportunity to continue to develop the design of the memorial and memorial park. Second place won $8,000; third, $5,000; and fourth and fifth, $1,000 each and commendations for design excellence.
The designers, members of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee, and members of the six firefighters’ families have been invited to attend the awards presentation.
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee announced the winning design Sept. 27, near the site of what will become Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park 5-1438. The site is off Grove Street on scenic Salisbury Pond across from historic Institute Park. The numbers in the park’s name stand for the five alarms and the Fire Department code for the location of the fire.
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee began working in late 2001 to establish a memorial to honor Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. “Jay” Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer. They died Dec. 3, 1999, trying to save the lives of others in an abandoned warehouse off Route 290 near downtown Worcester. Their deaths were the worst loss of firefighters’ lives in more than 20 years in a building fire in America, and the third worst fire in Massachusetts’ history.
The winning design emerged from a two-stage national design competition that attracted 158 entrants from 30 states. The jury chose five finalists in July during the first stage of the national competition.
Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park 5-1438 will be financed through a public fund-raising campaign. Donations can be sent to Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial, 34 Glennie Street, Worcester, Mass. 01605.
(PLEASE NOTE: The press is invited to attend the awards breakfast, which will take place from 8 a.m. until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 10 Lincoln Square. More information about the five finalists is available on the memorial committee’s Web site, http://www.fallen-heroes.org. Photos of the winning design are available by request; please MAILTO:l.mckie@neu.edu)
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