Landmark and museum: Irish Hunger Memorial, New York.

Architecture practice 1100 Architect, artist Brian Tolle and landscape architect Gail Witter-Laird collaboratively designed the Irish Hunger Memorial for the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority in New York. The memorial is dedicated to raising awareness of the “Great Irish Famine and Migration” of 1845-50, as well as world hunger today.



The project responds to the need to remember the events that marked the course of history, in this case the Great Irish Famine in the mid 19th century. One tenth of the people died, 15% decided to leave and many of these emigrated to the United States.



The site selected for this architectural work stands in the southwest point of Manhattan, a highly symbolic location that offers views of the port of New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, emblems of a new life .



The memorial combines historical and contemporary elements, a rural context and a cityscape, recreating an Irish landscape with dry stone walls, fallow potato fields and original flora from the European island, emotively reconstructing the desolation caused by the famine. The memorial contains stones from each of Ireland’s 32 counties.





The reconstructed landscape is elevated on a limestone plinth that communicates with the large office buildings around the square. The base of the Memorial incorporates a ruined fieldstone cottage and illuminated bands of texts wrap around it to tell the story of the Great Irish Famine.



In the words of David Piscuskas, codirector and cofounder of 1100 Architect: “The need to memorialize … is an enduring aspect of our culture”.
Apart from being a commemoration to history, the Irish Hunger Memorial also reminds its visitors of the ever-present problem of world hunger and the resulting migration that we need to tackle.

Design Team
Client: Battery Park City Authority
Artist: Brian Tolle
Architect: 1100 Architect, http://1100architect.com/
Landscape Architect: Gail Eileen Wittwer-Laird, ASLA
Location: New York, USA
Year: 2002
Photos: ©Peter Aaron/OTTO, Courtesy of 1100architect
Link: NY Public Library http://www.floornature.com/blog/new-york-public-library-battery-park-city-branch-designed-by-1100architect-is-about-to-be-leed-gold-certified-and-has-been-presented-with-a-2012-interiors-award-for-public-spaces-7632/, Apartment Building http://www.floornature.com/blog/avant-chelsea-an-apartment-building-in-new-york-1100-architect--7922/, Interview with Jürgen Riehm http://www.floornature.com/projects-buildings-and-public-places/project-interview-with-juergen-riehm-1100-architect-8014/
Consultants
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates
MEP Engineer: Lilker Associates
Site/Civil Engineer: Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc.
Soil Engineer: Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers
Lighting Designer: Johnson Schwinghammer Lighting Consultants
Graphic Designer: Piscatello Design Centre
Audio/Visual Consultant: Shen Milsom & Wilke
Concrete Consultant: Reginald D. Hough, FAIA
Code and Foundation Consultant: Cornerstone Consultants Inc.
Irrigation Consultant: Northern Designs
Contractor: Metrotech Contracting Corp.
Construction Manager: Cashin Associates
Landscape Consultant: Signe Nielson, Landscape Architect PC