Irish Hunger Memorial New York, NY

Together with artist Brian Tolle and landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird, 1100 Architect was selected by the Battery Park City Authority to create a memorial commemorating the Great Irish Hunger. On a base of Irish limestone and illuminated glass, the team re-created a rugged landscape comprised of abandoned potato fields, various species of native Irish plants, and walls made of stones from each of Ireland’s 32 counties. From the base’s west side, visitors enter and ascend through a passageway that opens into a ruined famine-era cottage. Leaving the cottage, visitors may wander through the fields and overgrown potato furrows. The landscape cantilevers boldly beyond its base, suggesting the courageous journey made by Irish émigrés to America. Text inserted into the glass strata of this platform recounts the history of the Hunger and encourages visitors to become actively engaged in meeting the current challenge of world hunger.