By Gregory Harris, assistant editor

Students, teachers, the injured and their families contributed text that has been inscribed into the walls of the Ring of Healing. The walls of the Ring of Healing are composed of red sandstone and are eight feet high at the highest point.
Photo Courtesy of Architerra Group

April 20, 1999 is etched in the memory of Littleton, Colo. residents for all the wrong reasons. On that day, 12 students and a teacher were killed and 23 others injured by two students at Columbine High School.

As the magnitude of the tragedy unfolded, a makeshift memorial of flowers, notes, stuffed animals, pictures and poems was erected at Littleton?EUR??,,????'???s Clement Park, which is located adjacent to the high school grounds.

Two months after the Columbine incident, the Columbine Memorial Committee, consisting of community leaders, Columbine High School faculty, parents and alumni, was formed to create a physical, permanent memorial to honor those touched by the tragedy.

Dean Pearson, ASLA, RLA ?EUR??,,????'??? a principal at the Littleton-based landscape architecture firm The Architerra Group ?EUR??,,????'??? was a member of the memorial committee chairing the design subcommittee.

The Columbine Memorial located adjacent to the high school in Littleton, Colorado?EUR??,,????'???s Clement Park, features an inner Ring of Remembrance, and an outer Ring of Healing and is nestled along Rebel Hill, which offers a place of solemn reflection for the Littleton community. Native plants and grasses have been used to accentuate the site.

The design subcommittee worked with the families of the victims as well as the public throughout the design process. In addition, Pearson hired DHM Design of Denver to do the actual design of the memorial. Pearson helped to obtain numerous material, cash and service donations for the memorial. Pearson, through the Architerra Group, also did all of the construction administration pro bono on the $1.5 million project.

In planning the memorial, several goals for the site were agreed upon, including creating a respectful place where family members, members of the community and visitors can come to gain an understanding of the innocent victims of Columbine; creating a memorial with content and purpose 100 percent derived from members of the Columbine community, and in keeping with the scale, materials and natural forms found in the Columbine area; recognizing and honoring the deceased, the injured, the survivors and the community members; and incorporating the Columbine ?EUR??,,????'??never forgotten?EUR??,,????'?? ribbon in the concept design for the memorial.

The permanent memorial is located in Clement Park and is slightly more than one acre in size.

The inner Ring of Remembrance features stone etched with words that are individual narrative remembrances of the deceased victims of the Columbine tragedy. The Columbine ?EUR??,,????'??Never Forgotten?EUR??,,????'?? ribbon has been included in the paving of the floor of the inner ring. This inner ring is surrounded by trees that, when mature, will have leaves that soften the light surrounding the Ring of Remembrance.

According to the Columbine Memorial Committee, visitors to the memorial are drawn in by the sound of water and a grove of trees. Volumes of rushing water fill visitors?EUR??,,????'??? ears, masking noisy park activities and providing a means to transition into an introspective interior space. The interior of the memorial is an oval stone outer wall softened by a grove of trees in the center and low native plantings around the edges. Steep landforms of the existing hills gently fold back from the top of the outer retaining wall. These hills surround a majority of the memorial, embracing, comforting and protecting the visitor and the community. As the memorial elements are revealed, the visitor notices the inner Ring of Remembrance, and the outer Ring of Healing.

Messages from the 13 victims?EUR??,,????'??? immediate families are inscribed in the inner Ring of Remembrance, while a variety of general text gathered from interviews of students, teachers, the injured and their families, and other community members that tell diverse stories of healing, changes in the community, and hopes for the future are inscribed in the Ring of Healing.

The site includes overlooks along and on top of Rebel Hill that provide panoramic views to the Rocky Mountains, the eastern plains and the Columbine community and landscaped terraces on the north hill that soften the hillside and allow for small gathering areas in which visitors might share their thoughts and experiences with each other.

Groundbreaking for the Columbine Memorial took place on June 16, 2006. Construction began in August of 2006, and the dedication ceremony took place on Sept. 21, 2007.