Two days before the second anniversary of the Center City building collapse that claimed six lives, the Philadelphia Art Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a design for the June 5th Memorial to be built on the collapse site at 22nd and Market streets.
Three tall granite stones with two windows in each -- one to represent each of the victims -- will make up the memorial. The victims' names will be etched into the granite.
Local artist Barbara Fox, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, designed the memorial. The park, which was designed by a team of volunteers and professionals, is also expected to include stone benches, trees and ornamental grasses. Officials have estimated its cost at $1.3 million, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in donated work. More than half of the cost has been donated so far, officials said.
Anne Bryan, 24, Roseline Conteh, 52, Borbor Davis, 68, Kimberly Finnegan, 35, Juanita Harmon, 75, and Mary Simpson, 24, all lost their lives June 5, 2013, when the wall of a building being demolished at the intersection collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift store below. Thirteen people also injured in the collapse survived.
Bryan's mother, city Treasurer Nancy Winkler, was instrumental in leading the charge for the memorial to be built. She, along with Fox, Mayor Nutter and several others are to speak during a ceremony at the site at 10 a.m. Friday to mark the collapse's second anniversary.
