Year

2021

Status

In Progress

Client

The Chicago Architecture Biennial, The National Building Museum

Partners

Songha & Company, Purpose Over Pain, Everytown for Gun Safety, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Change the Ref, Newtown Action Alliance

Portrait of Michael Murphy
Michael Murphy
Founding Principal & CEO
Photo of Michael Murphy, Co-founder and CEO of MASS Design Group.

Michael Murphy

Founding Principal & CEO — Boston

Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, is the Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, an architecture and design collective that leverages buildings, as well as the design and construction process, to become catalysts for economic growth, social change, and justice. Since MASS's beginnings, their portfolio of work has expanded to over a dozen countries and span the areas of healthcare, education, housing, urban development. MASS’s work has been published in over 900 publications and awarded globally. Most recently, MASS has been recognized as the winners of the national Arts and Letters Award for 2017 and the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Michael’s 2016 TED talk has reached over a million views, and was awarded the Al Filipov Medal for Peace and Justice in 2017. MASS's project, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice was named the single greatest work of American architecture in the 21st century. Michael has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Michigan, and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Michael is from Poughkeepsie, NY, and holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago.

Portrait of Jha D Amazi
Jha D Amazi
Principal
Jha D Amazi

Jha D Amazi

Principal — Boston

Jha D is the Director of the Public Memory and Memorials Lab which is an initiative that advances research, training, and built work around a central thesis: spatializing memory can heal us and inspire collective action for generations to come. Projects in the Lab’s portfolio include the Sugar Land 95 Cemetery Revitalization Project, Harris County Remembrance Project and several initiatives with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

At MASS, Jha D has also contributed to the Gun Violence Memorial Project, Franklin Park Action Plan, and the Louise B. Miller Memorial and Freedom Garden at Gallaudet University. Previously, she worked as a Designer at Sasaki Associates. She received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Northeastern University and her Master of Architecture I from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to pursuing her graduate degree, she taught design studios at the Boston Architectural College. Outside of architecture, Jha D is a spoken word artist, event producer, and SpaceMaker for the LGBTQ+ communities of color.

Project Team

Michael Murphy, Jha D Amazi, John Maher, Maggie Stern, Justin Brown, Chris Scovel, Emily Ebersol, Isabel Strauss, Mayrah Udvardi, Regina Yang, Annie Wang

Collaborators

Media Production: Haroula Rose, Caryn Capotosto, StoryCorps
House Fabrication: Ravenswood Studio
Audio: Sam Stubblefield

Community Partners

Shawn Moss Wellness and Growth Foundation, Families First DC, Anacostia Arts Center, The McClain Foundation, Destined 4 Greatness Inc, Mothers in Charge, Prince Hall Grand Lodge of PA, Nonviolence Institute, Safe Communities for Justice, Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University, Jared’s Heart of Success Inc., Family Survivor Network, Center that Cares

Community Partners (cont.)

Jeron x Grayson Community Center, CeaseFirePA, House of Manna, The Akilah Dasilva Foundation, Center of Life, Purpose For My Pain, St. Agatha Catholic CHurch, Purpose Over Pain, Parents for Peace & Justice, Hear My Cries, Camba Inc., Brownsville In Violence Out, Melquain Jatelle Anderson Foundation, The Godsquad 67th Precinct Clergy Council Inc., Where Do We Go From Here Inc., the Bronx Documentary Center, Robbed, and New Mexico Crusaders For Justice

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center

The Gun Violence Memorial Project is a space of remembrance and healing for individuals impacted by gun violence. Gun violence is a national epidemic that touches every community in America. The sheer scale of this epidemic often reduces victims of gun violence to statistics and ideas of change to empty promises.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in the National Building Museum

© National Building Museum / Elman Studio LLC

The memorial seeks to preserve individual memories and communicate the magnitude of the gun violence epidemic in built space, hoping to foster a national healing process that begins with a recognition of our collective loss and its impact on society. MASS is partnering with conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, and gun violence prevention organizations Purpose Over Pain and Everytown for Gun Safety on this project, along with local community-based organizations across the country.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in the National Building Museum

© National Building Museum / Elman Studio LLC

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center
Close up view of the object contributed within the walls of the Gun Violence Memorial Project

The memorial design features four houses built of 700 glass bricks, each house representing the average number of lives taken due to gun violence each week in America.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center
The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center
The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center

Families who have been impacted by gun violence have contributed remembrance objects at in-person collection events in 14 cities across the US.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center

The remembrance objects are placed within a glass brick, displaying the name, year of birth, and year of death of the person being honored. Inside each house, visitors can hear audio recordings from interviews conducted by MASS and StoryCorps.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center

On an adjacent wall outside of the houses are video clips from Comes The Light, a forthcoming documentary about the effects of gun violence. These portraits were filmed in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, and capture stories about the lives that have been cut short and the objects chosen to represent them.

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in Randolph Square at the Chicago Cultural Center

The memorial opened at the Chicago Cultural Center in September 2019 as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, where it was on display until February 2020. The memorial opened at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. in the Spring of 2021, as a companion to the exhibit “Justice is Beauty: The Work of MASS Design Group.” It is open and free to the public through, where it will be on display until September, 2022.

Image of the Justice is Beauty exhibit on display at the National Building Museum

Photo: National Building Museum/Elman Studio

The Gun Violence Memorial Project in the National Building Museum

© National Building Museum / Elman Studio LLC

Our vision is to create a permanent, national memorial that honors the lives and narratives of victims of gun violence.

For more information about the project, visit gunviolencememorialproject.org.