The Burying Ground Memorial at the University of Richmond was featured in The Architect’s Newspaper, spotlighting a community project rooted in research, dialogue, and collective memory.
Designed in collaboration with Waterstreet Studio and shaped through years of engagement with descendant families and university partners, the memorial acknowledges the enslaved individuals buried on the campus’ land. Created in response to a 2019 report documenting the history of the university’s land and the enslaved individuals connected to it, the memorial provokes collective memory through a curved granite story wall anchors the site, lined with texts and images that share the narratives behind the land.
Water runs quietly at its base while carved figures—derived from descendant family photographs—bring personal histories into view. Bronze Adinkra symbols mark key points of entry and overlook. A 200-year-old white oak “witness tree” and its newly planted seedlings connect past and future, while seating stones invite visitors to pause.
As Principal Burt Pinnock shared with AN, the project “asks all of us to see what was once deliberately unseen,” he said. “In that sense, the project reflects what we believe cultural design can do at its best: translate lived experience into built form, and shape spaces that connect people to place, to history, and to one another.”