Throughout the year, people from the state of Maine and from around the world will come to Augusta to honor those they have lost, those who have suffered and those who still live without their freedom. This design aims to provide a setting that is gentle on the landscape but with dramatic elements that will compel visitors to contemplate the ideas we honor here.

As you approach the campus up the hill from the south, the Great Stone, a concrete monolith with large exposed natural aggregate canted directly toward the sites of the Holocaust, comes gradually into view, and, along with the adjacent amphitheater, frames the central green beyond. The gravity and presence of this mass growing out of the earth are sublime. The remainder of the visible structure is comprised of a series of alternating planes of glass and Corten steel that will naturally rust to a deep orange. The structure fans out toward the southern sun, emerging out of the ground and integrating the green with new spaces rich with sun and view. It is topped with a green “living” roof deck and will face a sunny hill in front, all the while allowing the views from the Katz Library to remain intact.

Each year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a crowd will gather in the amphitheater for a formal ceremony held at the base of the Great Stone. Participants will collect the previous year’s stones and carry them by procession up the center of the hill, directly up the steps. As they do this, they are walking toward the sites of the Holocaust. Each year’s stones are laid in concentric circles, creating arcs that radiate from a large solitary rock at the top of the hill. This “Garden of Stones” will remain and continue to radiate to form an extended monument, covering the hill and eventually growing beyond. Like the rings of a tree, the stones will tell a story of time, and grow well beyond their actual extents. People will walk through or sit within, and while doing so, sit together with their grandparents’ grandparents, feeling a strong connection to their ancestors.