ANNUAL VIRGINIA PRIZE ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION
2021 (Trajan Baker - 2nd year M. Arch Candidate)
The AIA Virginia Prize is a design charrette that engages students at all of the accredited architecture programs in Virginia. Conducted simultaneously at each institution, students are given the competition program Friday at 5 p.m. They work over the weekend to create a board presenting their design solution by 9 a.m. the following Monday. The competition is intended to promote collaboration between the profession, students and professors in Virginia.
DESIGN BRIEF 2021
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a private, nonprofit organization that challenges poverty and racial injustice, advocates for equal treatment in the criminal justice system, and creates hope for marginalized communities. EJI opened The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama in 2019.
Challenge: Design a pillar installation for the City of Alexandria’s Market Square.
My Design Proposal
The proposed memorial serves to remind the citizens of Alexandria about their dark past in hope of inspiring a better tomorrow. The pillars around the tree, surrounded at their base by soil from the lynching site, are symbolic of those who harbor hatred int heir hearts for others on the basis of skin color. The tree of bronze, representative of the lynching tree, rests upon a podium that acknowledges the Franklin & Armfield slave market based in this county years ago.