Missing Voices | New Jersey, USA | 2017

Architects: Studio Joseph
Client: Withheld
General Contractor: Withheld
Photographers: Studio Joseph, Guillaume Paturel of By-encore

Markers connect a place to its meaning. A marker’s physical presence is imbued with symbolic value based on its position and cultural context.

Scudder Plaza is a prominent site at the core of Princeton campus, adjacent to the Wilson School of Government.

The University asked us to design “Wilson Marker” as a place that would tell the story of Woodrow Wilson’s legacy. In response, we propose “Missing Voices.”

It recognizes metaphorically Wilson’s racism, the people he did not listen to, women, people of color, immigrants and its incompleteness leaves room for interpretation, connection, and discussion.

And on a very basic level enhances the day to day experience of the large, foreboding plaza.

Please note that the rectangular fountain with its large bronze sculpture and the trees were required to remain.

The design includes three deliberate gestures that taken together offer us opportunities for community engagement, physically, metaphorically, and virtually.

Voices: At the center of the plaza, surging forth from the entrance of the Wilson School, bronze plaques embedded in the granite paving demonstrate the power of incremental over monumental; disruptor and activator.

Composed in a randomized layout, they emerge from the entrance as a brilliant array. Bronze is a time-honored material of commemoration.

The plaques punctuate the existing gray paving. Without words, they carry a more symbolic message that can change over time.

Conversation: New places to sit along the north walkway encourage the exchange of ideas.

We replace a linear granite seating, installing an array of new benches, disposed to encourage people to gather for casual conversation or for directed learning as an outdoor classroom.

The wood slat forms are commodious but echo the dimension of the markers in their incremental structure. Comfortable and informal, they bring missing voices into the conversation.

Canvas: A media canvas runs the length of the north boundary. It is a data-driven light display that can be seen both day and night. It is activated by quotes that emanate in light from behind its surface.

The letters fade and shine with the activity, varying in intensity. The translucent concrete never feels like an empty screen.

This concrete has embedded fibers that give it an authentic presence and density. Its unique property of allowing light to pass is a strikingly elegant and robust way to provide technology without making a glass screen or LED monitor. The canvas is a digital blackboard on which we weave elements of time and history.

A series of quotes and statements deriving from our relationship to history appears on the surface of what otherwise seems to be an opaque concrete wall.

The elusive nature of the text is intended.

Programming and technology allow it to function in varied interactive states.

Digital Experience: The user will browse through a list of these items or will enter their own thoughts and then promote the item to the digital surface of Missing Voices.

An item can immediately populate to the wall or can be scheduled for a specific time.

A user can opt to receive a notification or reminder as to when the item will appear. A social sharing option will also promote these items across varied platforms.