Press Release

Design Competition Winner Announced for Springdale’s Veterans Memorial

Springdale Veterans Memorial Design Competition Winner Announced

The Springdale Veterans Memorial Organization (SVMO) is excited to announce the results of its design competition to establish a veterans memorial in Springdale, Arkansas. This design competition announced last October 2019, called on all established and aspiring architects, designers and planners to participate in an open design competition for developing a portion of Springdale’s JB Hunt Park for the purpose of recognizing and honoring those who served our great nation. Over 35 entries were received. Entries were carefully evaluated by a notable jury panel composed of established architectural scholars, creative design professionals and experienced entrepreneurs who devoted great care and attention to details while judging each entry.

Jeff Vinger, Colonel (USAF, Retired), SVMO Board member and professional advisor for the design competittion, said ”This competition aims to establish a prominent and artistic veterans memorial in a befitting setting that will further enhance the appearance of JB Hunt Park, its attraction and draw, its function and its utility for our community on a year-round basis”.

The competition challenged participants to think about how this memorial should serve to provide a symbol of acknowledgement of the courage, sacrifice, and devotion to duty of those who were among the nation’s finest and whose service embodied values and ideals prized by this nation since its inception.

Jannie Layne, President of SVMO stated, "We are overwhelmed with the magnitude of creativity and thoughtfulness that is present in all the submissions to our design competition. Each design could be utilized in any community to improve and elevate community knowledge of local veteran history. The selection jury really had its work cut out it in narrowing down to the top three winners. Sadly, we are only able to pick one winner. The winning design will not only be pleasing to the neighborhood, it will provide a safe and peaceful place to reflect and honor our veteran community."

Joesph Weishaar, member of the selection jury and designer of the National World War I Memorial in Washington DC remarked, ”These were a blast to review. I found them to be thought provoking and worthy of deeper investigation. There were definitely some compelling ideas that can be refined into a great memorial. I found them to be nuanced and finicky and appreciate them all the more for it.”

Peter B. MacKeith, member of the selection jury and Dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture shared, “The design competition’s 31 submitted entries brought forward a wealth of ideas and approaches to the complex issues of accomplishing a public memorial and a civic place simultaneously. The entries all possessed a heartfelt and sincere quality, an evident belief in the value of military service and in the need to provide honor and dignity to those who have served and those who have sacrificed. The approaches ranged from the emphatically architectural to the equally emphatically landscape architectural, from the use of literal symbols to the employment of more abstract forms, from references to historical styles to horticultural specifications of trees and plantings.” Dean MacKeith added, “The Springdale Veterans Memorial Competition organizing group is to be congratulated and thanked for their foresight and ambition, as well as for their dedication and commitment, in seeking to recognize the service and sacrifice of those Springdale citizens who have served in the nation’s military through a well-designed public memorial and civic place for the community. The choice of an open design competition as the means to initiate and achieve this vision is equally commendable, as in its very nature, such a competition demonstrates the participatory and meritocratic values of our society - those values that the nation’s military serve to defend.”

The winning designs:

First Place and winner of a $5,000 cash prize: Conor O’Shea – Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape, Chicago, IL

According to Dean MacKeith, “The entry recognized with the first-place award achieves a clear, strong and compelling synthesis of these multiple design decisions. It’s design is the most fully integrative and combinatorial: both constructed and planted, both open and enclosed, both collectively symbolic and respectful of individual belief, both shared experience and personal encounter, both formally honorific - attentive to necessary rituals and traditions - and gently dignified - attentive to the necessity of less-structured movement and reflection.” He added, “As well, the winning design has been presented with commendable thoroughness and sensitivity - the sequence of perspectives walking a visitor through the design is particularly admirable. Lastly, this entry presented a design that has a realistic attainability: it can be understood in its construction and cultivation, and can be brought into reality in stages and over time, with focused investment and community participation. All together, the entry is persuasively evocative of an appropriate atmosphere for the vision of the memorial and convincing in the completeness of its design thinking. This is design at its best, one that does not dictate or demand, but invites and inspires.”

Second Place and winner of a $1,000 cash prize: Steve Butler, PB2 Architecture + Engineering, Rogers, AR

June 20, 2022 Click on this link for a video

Third Place and winner of a $500 cash prize: Sae Kim and David Nagahiro – CBT Architects, Boston, MA

Jane Meade-Hunt, member of the selection jury stated, ”It was a pleasure to be a part of the selection process for the Springdale Veterans Memorial to be place in J.B. Hunt Park. Our family knows our father, who loved and support veterans, would be proud to host this in the park with his name on it.”

President Layne added, "We appreciate the efforts of our jurors, the designers and the City of Springdale for supporting this opportunity and we are are anxious to move forward to the next phase of the Springdale Veterans Memorial Park."

Col. Vinger explained, ”Now that a concept has been settled on, the SVMO embarks on the most challenging phase of this ambitious project, raising the funds needed to bring it to reality. We envision the cost of the memorial to be nearly $5 million dollars raised entirely through private contributions from individual donors, local foundations and corporations.”

Given the ongoing pandemic, SVMO cancelled its plans to host a public design competition reveal event. Instead, prizes will be forwarded to these top three designers with congratulatory acknowledgement to follow sometime in the future as SVMO kicks off its fund raising campaign to bring this memorial to Springdale, Arkansas. Until then, the public, design enthusiasts, aficionados and editors are cordially invited to visit the SVMO online gallery of winners at www.svmo72762.org which features more details on each of the top three designs from the SVMO design competition and a link to donate to this effort.