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CLIENT Korean Memorial + Cultural Center |
LOCATION Allentown, Pennsylvania COST $11.8 Million USD |
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DESCRIPTION
Korean Memorial + Cultural Center commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Korean conflict (1950-1953), commonly described as America's "forgotten war." The memorial's purpose, as mandated by the veterans who commissioned the work, is to pay tribute to the sacrifices made by Korean War soldiers, but also to open channels of meaningful international dialog at all levels, including the most local, to explore our common humanity. |
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The site is a sloping, eight-acre parcel of land traversed by an interstate highway and overlooking a well-known amusement park. The 60-foot-high monument, a faceted, translucent cylinder based on the form of a garden lantern, rises from a plinth-like base emerging starkly from the hillside. As in the Hamlin Chapel and Library, a garden is planted adjacent to the structure across a steep slope, evoking the disequilibrium of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. Symbolic of the dark ironies of war and peace, the heavily fortified DMZ has been untouched by humans for half a century and has consequently reverted to its natural state. It is now a refuge for numerous endangered species, and an international movement is calling for its preservation as a wildlife sanctuary.
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The notion that the aftermath of war can be harnessed for the promotion of peace and cultural understanding suffuses the structure's architectural program. Visitors walk through the garden and enter the plinth, which houses a 900-seat auditorium for public seminars, a digital library featuring a depository of documents pertaining to the war, a bookstore, café and galleries for permanent exhibitions. Archival audiovisual records of interviews with military and government leaders are also available. From this level, a series of ramps and stairways lead into the lantern itself, where a hall of remembrance containing historically significant artifacts from the Korean War era and spaces for temporary exhibitions unfold across a succession of catwalks.
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Suspended between the memorial's immense cylindrical void and onyx skin, through which interior lighting transforms the structure into a beacon of hope, these displays deepen the visitors' sense of the sacrifices of the veterans, the tragedy of violence and the interconnections between east and west as they ascend the lantern's height.
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