Red Cross Memorial Plaza

Aurora, Colorado

Honoring history through thoughtful design

Design Workshop is leading the design for a new half-acre plaza at the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado. The team has designed a memorial space that will be constructed where the 1918 Red Cross Building once stood: the exact geographic center of the campus.

The 1918 building, shaped like a cross, provides the bones for an historic park for the space, dividing it into four quadrants that will each represent the subjects of influence that brought the building to life throughout its past. This includes nurses, volunteers, the community, and the Fitzsimons army medical unit that occupied it during times of war. Interpretive signage and messaging will be integrated into the four quadrants, and as you move outward from the geographic center, you will walk through time to understand how each of those four communities were influenced throughout different periods of history.

The design features native landscaping and a gathering space for visitors to enjoy year-round, but the plaza will really come to life in autumn when the bosque of maple trees turns bright red and becomes an iconic, peaceful space for relaxation and contemplation.

Services Provided: Site Design

Client

CU Anschutz Medical Campus