A Bridge to the Stars
Goodwood Museum & Gardens located in Tallahassee, FL is planning a memorial for the enslaved people that used to work on the property. The Goodwood Museum & Gardens Memorial to the Enslaved will serve as a lasting tribute to those individuals, named and unnamed, who lived and toiled in bondage here and to their descendants. Goodwood held a competition for memorial designs. This memorial, designed by two of my classmates and I, won the competition and will be built on the Goodwood property in the near future. We also presented about the design process of the memorial at the 2023 TEDxFSU conference.
Night View
When moving through the memorial, visitors look up to see round lights hanging from the live oaks. Each light is inscribed with the name of the enslaved people etched. During slavery, these people were constantly looked down upon. In the memorial, everyone has to look up to their names.
The bridge is held up by figures that resemble people. This is a reminder of the deteriorating labor conditions that the enslaved people were forced to endure. The figures are also reminiscent of the small stairwell and dark basement where Gooodwood’s enslaved people carried out their tasks.
