Wright State Fine Arts Technician Landon Crowell participating in Oregon District memorial competition

Artist rendering of the proposed design for the 8/4 Memorial by Team DCD, which includes Landon Crowell, fine arts technician in Wright State’s School of Fine and Performing Arts.

Landon Crowell, a sculptor and fine arts technician in Wright State University’s School of Fine and Performing Arts, is a finalist to design a public memorial to honor the nine people killed in the 2019 Oregon District mass shooting.

Crowell teamed up with Dayton artist Amy Deal and James Dinh, a public artist and landscape architect from Los Angeles, to submit the proposal, which features a pocket park where people can sit quietly and think.

“The proposed 8/4 Memorial design envisions a welcoming, inclusive commemorative space that honors the lives of the victims; a place where people can contemplate the collective and continual effort it takes to build a peaceful and tolerant society; and a location that inspires hope, togetherness and healing,” the artists, known as Team DCD, said in their proposal.

Crowell said his team designed a public artwork that honors the fortitude of the Dayton community.

“The space is about healing. In addition to honoring the nine lives lost, the memorial is about rebuilding and the resiliency of Dayton,” he said.

The team is one of five finalists for the 8/4 Memorial project, which will serve as a remembrance of the Aug. 4, 2019, tragedy. In addition to the nine people who were killed, 27 were wounded in the shooting.

A panel of local jurors will select a final design for the memorial by Aug. 4, 2023. The memorial is expected to be completed by Aug. 4, 2024, and will be located in the plaza adjacent to the Trolley Stop, 530 E. Fifth St.

Dayton.com is collecting feedback on the final design proposals through Monday, June 19.

Team DCD’s design proposal features two large limestone slabs that are angled toward each other to create a gateway that frames an old crabapple tree in the space. The slabs do not touch, creating an illusion that if they fall over, they will remain upright by supporting each other.

Small holes cut through the limestone slabs form the constellation of stars that shone over Dayton on the night of Aug. 4, 2019.

The gateway is positioned so that at noon annually on Aug. 4 the sun will shine over the tree and through the limestone slabs, creating shadows and light patterns unique to that time. It also provides a natural time to gather at the space and remember the victims every year, Crowell said.

“It’s a long-lasting engagement for the community,” he said.

A constellation map depicting the stars that shone over Dayton on the night of tragedy will be etched into the slabs. Small holes will be drilled through the stone to represent the stars. As visitors move around the slabs, their perspective of the constellation map will change, creating a dynamic visual effect.

“It’s static on the sculpture, but the person has to be dynamic to view and get the whole picture,” Crowell said.

The number of stars on the slabs will be 519, representing the number of lives lost in mass shootings in 2019.

“It doesn’t only recognize it as a Dayton issue. It’s a national issue,” Crowell said. “It’s calling attention to the fact we lost nine of those 519.”

The space is defined by a low circular concrete seat wall that provides a place to sit, reflect and find respite from the urban context. The installation also includes nine stones commemorating the nine lives lost.

The team’s proposal also includes a community engagement program featuring art therapy sessions that could be held in the pocket park, local schools or elsewhere in the community.

Crowell, who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from Wright State, is an accomplished sculptor.

Crowell created an optical illusion-like wall sculpture on display in a hallway connecting Kettering Labs and Hathcock Hall at the University of Dayton and an aerial sculpture in the PNC Arts Annex in downtown Dayton. He has also exhibited at the Rosewood Arts Centre in Kettering, among other area art venues.

As a fine arts technician in Wright State’s College of Liberal Arts, Crowell is often called on to install artworks in the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries in the Creative Arts Center. He also helped install “Dial,” the sculpture in the Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building.

He is now collaborating with Dinh on the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Memorial, which will be built overlooking the Miami River in downtown Dayton.