A translucent glass bridge representing the tiara that Queen Elizabeth II wore on her wedding day and a pair of statues honoring the British monarch are central features in the design of a memorial to be built in a London park, according to artist renderings released on Tuesday.
The memorial, which will aim to celebrate Elizabeth’s achievements as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and her marriage to Prince Philip, will also include an audio installation of the queen’s voice and inscriptions of quotations by her, according to the plans.
The design for the memorial, which has a projected cost of about $31 million to $62 million, is the work of Foster + Partners, the architectural firm that designed the Millennium Bridge in London, modernized the British Museum’s Great Court and created Apple stores around the world. The concept was chosen from five finalists in an open search that began in December.
The final design is to be announced in April, according to the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, which is steering the project and which chose the winning idea. The committee was established by the British government and the royal household in 2023, the year after the queen’s death at age 96.
The concept “celebrates Queen Elizabeth’s life through a time of great change, balancing tradition and modernity, public duty and private faith, the United Kingdom and a global Commonwealth,” the committee said in a statement.
The memorial is planned for St. James’s Park, which borders Buckingham Palace, the monarchy’s official residence. The park has hosted numerous royal public events, including a floral display in the queen’s honor after her death. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk also runs through the park and includes a bridge over the central lake.
The bridge for the Queen Elizabeth memorial will span the same lake, and will unite two gardens — the community garden and the Commonwealth garden — a nod to the queen’s domestic and international work, according to the plans released on Tuesday.
The two statues in the memorial design include one of the queen on horseback, referencing her love of the animals, and one of the queen and Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99.
Foster + Partners and the memorial committee will now select a sculptor to work on the statues, whose designs are likely to differ from the artist renderings released on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.
St James’s Park is also close to the headquarters of the Commonwealth, a collection of countries born out of the dissolution of the British Empire. Under the queen’s stewardship, it grew from seven countries, mostly former colonies, to 56 member states, and helped maintain Britain’s diplomatic presence around the world.
“She was part of our national identity and helped to define our values,” Robin Janvrin, who served as the queen’s private secretary and now heads the memorial committee, said in a statement explaining the project’s objectives. “She gave us a sense of continuity through times of great change.”
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The post Design for Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Features a Tiara-Inspired Bridge appeared first on New York Times.
