Design For LGBT Monument In Greenwich Village Revealed

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed on Sunday plans for a new LGBT monument in Greenwich Village that he commissioned in the wake of the Orlando Pulse massacre.

Cuomo released renderings of the forthcoming memorial on Sunday, the same day as New York City's LGBT Pride March. The governor launched an LGBT Memorial Commission following the massacre in Orlando, where a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub. The shooting killed 49 people. Cuomo said on Sunday that the design from artist Anthony Goicolea had been selected to be installed in the Hudson River Park.

"This monument will serve as a communal space filled with light, color, and hope where the visitors can sit, mourn, love, and remember for years to come," Goicolea said in a statement.

The monument will be installed in a portion of the waterside park between Bethune and West 12th streets. The space will include nine modified boulders, some that are bisected with a clear, laminated glass that will create rainbow patterns on the surrounding lawn and nearby objects, according to a statement from Cuomo's office. (Want more local news? Subscribe here for free breaking news alerts, features, neighborhood updates and more from Patch.)

Goicolea, who grew up in Georgia, told the New York Timesthat he had never "never seen my community reflected back at me" until he visited the West Village.

"I had never seen people — gay people — engaging in this way," he told the Times. "There was no apology for it."

After the devastating shooting in Orlando, the biggest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 158, creating the LGBT Memorial Commission and tasking them to design and build a memorial to honor the LGBT community. The commission began reviewing proposals for the monument in October.

The monument will be constructed in one of New York City's most important neighborhoods to the LGBTQ civil rights movement. The Hudson River Park monument will be blocks away from the recently-finished New York City AIDS Memorial, in addition to the pivotal Stonewall Inn National Monument, the first national monument dedicated to the LGBT movement and located outside the bar that launched a generation of activism.

Renderings via Governor Andrew Cuomo's office.