Irish Hunger Memorial

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 walls with stones from each of Ireland’s 32 counties, abandoned potato fields, and various species of native Irish plants and grasses. From the base’s west side, visitors enter through an ascending 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. Within the glass strata of this platform, text is inscribed that recounts the history of the Hunger.