PBS News Hour Features 2021 CODAaward Winner Rebeca Méndez
CODAawards Winner Rebeca Méndez provides an in-depth look at her winning project in this interview on the PBS News Hour. Her project, titled Tucson’s January 8th Memorial: The Embrace, honors the victims of the 2011 mass shooting which killed 6 people and injured 13 others. The Embrace is a collaboration between Méndez, architect and landscape designer Tina Chee, and project architect Marc Salette. Images by Iwan Baan.
Méndez did an in-depth interview with Stephanie Sy, the anchor of PBS NewsHour West, and correspondent for the national broadcast. The feature highlights Méndez’s collaboration with the Chee Salette Architecture Office in designing a space to honor the victims and survivors who were shot by a deranged gunman at a public event of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on January 8, 2011. The Memorial is an architectural embrace with healing arms protecting the inner walls which hold a universal symbolic language to create a common ground that transcends political posturing on gun violence and celebrates the shared value of life.