Oklahoma City National Memorial, (sculpture).

Oklahoma City National Memorial, (sculpture).

Butzer, Hans-Ekkehard, architect.

Berg, Sven, architect.

Butzer, Torrey, architect.

Butzer Design Partnership, architectural firm.

Oklahoma City National Memorial, (sculpture).

Dedicated April 19, 2000.

Mixed media, including bronze, glass, granite, concrete, trees and chalkboard.

Overall site: 3.3. acres.

(Etched text on each of the bronze entry gates:) We come to remember/Those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever/May all who leave here know the impact of violence/May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace.

A 3.3 acre site-specific memorial commemorating victims and survivors of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the morning of April 19, 1995. The memorial is comprised of The Gates of Time, a Field of Empty Chairs, the Survivors' Chapel, a Survivor Tree, and the Helpers' Orchard, which surround a 319 foot long rectangular reflecting pool. The Gates of Time, which frame the memorial have an interior face of concrete and exterior bronze panels. The moment before the bombing "9:01" is inscribed on the east gate; "9:03", the moment after the bombing, is inscribed on the west gate. To the south, the Field of Empty Chairs contains 168 empty chairs, one for each person who died in the bombing. The seats and backs of the chairs are made of cast bronze and granite. Chairs are arranged in nine rows, one for each floor of the building, and 19 smaller chairs for the children who died. Each chair bears the name of the victim etched on its glass bottom. The Survivors' Chapel is at the east end of the memorial and includes five-by-seven foot granite panels (salvaged from the damaged building), inscribed with names of survivors and hung on the two remaining walls of the Murrah Building. To the North, an elm tree which survived the blast still stands, now surrounded by a round retaining wall and platform anchor, with quotations honoring thouse who helped in the rescue efforts. There is also a fruit tree orchard in honor of the rescue workers, and a low curved wall and chalkboard with childrens' messages.

History -- United States -- Oklahoma

Disaster -- Accident -- Explosion

Object -- Furniture -- Chair

Outdoor Sculpture -- Oklahoma -- Oklahoma City

Coadministered by United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington, District of Columbia

Coadministered by Oklahoma City National Memorial Trust, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Located Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, former site of, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The memorial commemorates victims and survivors of one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in the United States, a truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The total cost of the entire memorial site, which includes a museum and anti-terrorism institute, was $24.1 million, with $5 million contributed by the federal government; $5 million given by the State of Oklahoma, and the rest raised with private funding. IAS files contain copies of related newspaper clippings from the Washington Post, July 2, 1997, A-1; Oct. 26, 1998, A-4, 5; April 20, 2000 and Feb. 20, 2001; and from Daily News (Oklahoma City), April 19, 2000; and the Oklahoman, April 19, 2000. The concept of the chairs and cost of the memorial was controversial.

Washington Post, July 2, 1997, Sect. A, pg. 1.

Sculpture (magazine), July/Aug. 2000, pg. 14.

Dupre, Judith, "Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory," New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2007, pg. 186-191.

Sculpture (magazine), July/Aug. 2000, pg. 14 (detail).

Dupre, Judith, "Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory," New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2007, pg. 186-189.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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