As plans for Highland Park’s place of remembrance for the 2022 Fourth of July shooting move forward, city leaders urge designers to have memorials ready for the fifth anniversary in 2027.
During last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, staff shared their recommendation to city council members to select the SWA Group as the place of remembrance designers, out of a shortlist of four firms.
The SWA Group has experience with other communities that have faced similar tragedies to Highland Park. They’ve designed memorials, including The Clearing in Newtown, Connecticut, a circular pool with a tree growing from its center commemorating the 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and the Grand Candela in El Paso, a 30-foot-tall golden tower memorializing the victims of a 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart Supercenter, among others.
Board members voiced their support of efforts so far and seemed in favor of moving forward with SWA.
City councilmember Annette Lidawer pushed for the place of remembrance to be ready for the Fourth of July in 2027, the fifth anniversary of the shooting that killed seven and wounded nearly 50 others, saying “the date is important.”
“I request from the bottom of my heart that we have one more Fourth of July to go through before we have a memorial,” Lidawer said.
City staff said the estimated completion for the design process was in December 2026, with the construction timeline to be determined.
According to city documents, the project will have two sites, roughly a five-minute walk from each other. The first will sit in Port Clinton Plaza, where SWA’s proposal emphasizes balancing “visibility with sensitivity,” since the memorial site will remain “open, active and visible.”
The second site, the Rose Garden, sits adjacent to city hall and will be a more “immersive and contemplative memorial experience,” sitting “close but slightly removed” from the physical space of the tragedy.
“This quieter setting invites personal reflection, offering a peaceful refuge for those who seek it out,” SWA’s proposal document said.
Documents showed various designs for each site, although the specifics were still to be determined, city staff said.
Councilmember Anthony Blumberg noted SWA’s unique understanding of the community and the “challenge of this particular place of remembrance,” particularly the tension between some residents about where the sites should or shouldn’t be.
“To some degree, that will never be completely resolved to everybody’s satisfaction,” Blumberg said. “They understand that. Their openness and ability to manage the process seemed to be more advanced and better articulated than other groups.”
More Top Picks Shokz Openmove
The process for creating a place of remembrance has been a long one. Earlier this year during the trial for the shooter, the city largely halted discussions, which they said was an effort to be mindful of a community wrestling with trauma.
Highland Park’s Fourth of July celebrations have looked different in the subsequent years, although city leadership have raised bringing back evening events and other traditions that have been dropped.