I have to admit this was the last project I thought would continue post-pandemic, but here it is, mid-installation at the foot (top?) of Chambers in Rockefeller Park.

The latest memorial pushed through by Cuomo memorializes the 3000 victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, designed by Puerto Rico-based architect Segundo Cardona and artist Antonio Martorell. It joins the Mother Cabrini memorial unveiled in October; the memorial to AIDS victims in Hudson River Park; the LGBT Memorial to those lost in the Orlando Pulse nightclub in 2016 also in Hudson River Park; the Irish Hunger Memorial in BPC — what else am I missing?

While this may indeed be an important memorial for New York to host, why it ended up on Chambers and River Terrace rather, say, a neighborhood that might have actually felt the effects of the hurricane is a mystery. (Same lack of connection goes for Mother Cabrini, IMO.) In fact, I would think it’s fair time to give other neighborhoods some public art. Not *everything* has to be in Manhattan.

The design is an ascending glass spiral meant to evoke both a hurricane and a shell, which the artists considered a symbol of protection. At the top of the spiral is a rotating star taken from the Puerto Rican flag. The glass panels, painted by Matrorell, include the poem “Farewell from Welfare Island” by Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos, written when she was living in New York City.

The Hurricane Maria Memorial Commission received 120 submissions for designs and were instructed to design for that site or the outer corner of the park on the river; the total cost is approximately $700,000.