Claire Ferraris ferrarc@msn.com, ferrarc@wou.

edu 503-606-9073 May 10, 2012 Kimberli Fitzgerald, Planner 111 City of Salem Planning Division Dear Ms Fitzgerald and City of Salem Planning Division members, Thank you for the opportunity to include my letter into the debate regarding the memorial project for the mental health patients at Oregon State Hospital in Salem. I have a deep and emotional interest in the project and have been following the evolution of the design for some time. I believe that the design analysis and rending by the artist/architects of Lead Pencil Studio, Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, is an intelligent, sensitive, and artistic success integrating historic preservation with a significant understanding of the profound need for creating a memorial that both preserves hollow ground and provides a place for meditation, prayer, and remembrance. It is a place for apology, as a reminder, and to pay homage. The design represents more than a memorial to the historic preservation of brick and mortar. It is a memorial to persons. It is hollow ground for the burial with dignity of the patients of OSH who died there and seemed to be forgotten. It is a reminder that the evolution in understanding of mental health care and dignity for all is at the very heart of our existence. I admit that I love the design of this project for emotional reasons. It represents in sincerely artistic terms the sensitivity that far surpasses a strict adherence to historic preservation of the significance of historic structures. But, arent all truly great memorials representing more than what the structures were built for? Is not a memorial a deeper look into our humanity and therefore a new structure in honor of the past. I ask you to allow this project to be completed as it is artistically presented by Lead Pencil Studio. Let us embrace today and the future with hope and dignity as we reflect on the past. Etched glass windows into the soul of the memorial add a metaphorical importance to this achievement. Strict adherence to preservation of bricks in place of the windows may represent historical accuracy; does it represent the profound message that the memorial actually represents? I would argue that we frame the decision based in understanding how the design both preserves and represents a memorial to those who died. It is a place for meditation and remembrance about humanity. Let us not confuse the difference between remembrance of life once lived and buildings once standing. Sincerely, Claire Ferraris