Light Shared Between Us

At dawn on October 7, a visitor steps off North Rexford sidewalk onto the transformed Library garden, no longer a tangle of dense shrubs but an open space beneath large mature conifers. A grid of 1,200 dwarf olive trees, each a silent tribute, shimmers silver in the pre-dawn glow, guiding toward a single ribbon of deep bronze weathering steel, its surface leaning 14° toward the rising sun. In the pre-dawn glow, names cut as voids through steel—1,200 lives lost—appear without depth. As the sun breaches the urban horizon and neighboring buildings at 06:57, each void ignites, gold light threading through the steel memorial like suspended candles. For eighty-six minutes, the precise overlap when Beverly Hills’ dawn meets southern Israel’s sunset, the names blaze in a communal ritual, honoring the victims of October 7, 2023. By 08:23, the glow fades, the steel falls silent, yet the garden’s new purpose remains, weaving this act of memory into the daily life of Beverly Hills’ civic heart.

A thoughtfully conceived memorial must rest on a clear framework of intentions before any sketch is drawn or material chosen. By first articulating the core parameters—why we commemorate, how we honor without exploiting, and how we foster renewal and stewardship—we ensure that every subsequent design decision serves a coherent public purpose. This analysis establishes the ethical, experiential, and civic standards that transform a static monument into a living place of memory, reflection, and community engagement.

Define Purpose Before Form

Preserve Accurate Memory: An inscriptional element listing every victim’s name and age.
Turn Grief into Growth: A dedicated gathering space for group reflection and learning.

Guard Against Voyeurism

No figurative sculptures or graphic depictions of violence.
Favor abstract geometry and text-based art.

Signal Humility & Permanence

Embrace functional austerity and clear, legible forms.
Material palette of durable, unadorned long-lasting materials.
A space that encloses a smaller area for reflection, study, or quiet gathering.
A precisely positioned light aperture (or equivalent natural lighting strategy) that ties cosmic or natural rhythms to the anniversary date.

Integrate the Living

Program for service—such as planting a grove of 1,200 saplings—to symbolize renewal.
Design the planting or other living element as a participatory event, fostering community ownership.

Maximize Civic Impact

Locate in a highly accessible urban node.
Ensure direct visual or material linkage to key civic landmarks.

Endow Ongoing Stewardship

Fund for maintenance and routine cleaning.
Include security measures to deter and quickly address desecration.
Provide for an annual review or audit of educational content to maintain factual accuracy.

Inscriptional Content

Select a concise, universally resonant text (e.g., a verse, motto, or aphorism) that reconciles tragedy with a commitment to justice or hope.

Guiding Concept: Light as Memory

Building on these guiding parameters, the memorial’s single act of animation must come not from electricity or spectacle but from the most universal of forces—sunlight. By calibrating a precise aperture in the inscriptional wall to the annual overlap of Beverly Hills dawn and Israel dusk, we turn the sun itself into the custodian of memory: names remain silent and unseen year-round, then flare into living light on that shared anniversary. This natural ritual fulfills our mandate to preserve accurate memory without graphic trauma, avoids voyeuristic imagery, and elevates text into ceremony. To give that light-tunnel effect true gravitas requires a material that is both austere and indestructible, which is why we chose weathering (Corten) steel for the Name-Blade. Its self-healing patina ages without maintenance, its deep five-inch tunnels admit only the targeted sun-bridge beam, and its warm, rusted tones whisper permanence and humility rather than shout. In this way, form follows purpose: an unadorned steel scroll that enshrines 1,200 names, activated each year by nothing more than the turning earth and the promise that memory, like the sun, returns without fail.

The Corten Name-Blade: Material, Mass, and Monumentality

At the heart of the memorial lies a five-inch-thick Corten steel “Name-Blade” whose mass and material embody both permanence and humility. By welding together thirteen ⅜″-thick plates—the name wall sculpture achieves a net thickness of 4.875″, weighing approximately 10 tons. This weight is not accidental but fundamental: it roots the memorial in the earth even as the cantilevered ribbon form reaches skyward.

Inscription Strategy: Dual-Relief Naming

To honor each individual’s heritage while ensuring every visitor can read and remember each life, the Name-Blade uses two levels of text treatment:

Primary Sun-Voids in Native Script

Deep, full-depth apertures are cut in each victim’s mother tongue (dual nationals may prefer Hebrew TBD)—turning their names into sun-tunnels that only fill with light during the annual October 7 “Sun-Bridge.” Outside that window, the sun-voids read as a striking field of abstract forms, inviting reflection on absence. The breakdown by language is:

Arabic: 21
Azerbaijani: 1
Belarusian: 3
Mandarin: 4
English: 53
Tagalog: 4
French: 35
German: 15
Hebrew: 1,115
Italian: 3
Khmer: 1
Nepali: 10
Portuguese: 7
Romanian: 5
Russian: 19
Spanish: 16
Thai: 33
Turkish: 1
Ukrainian: 21

Secondary English Engraving

Directly beneath each sun-void, the same name (with age) appears in a shallow, single ⅜” sheet of steel, phonetic English inscription. This relief remains readable in everyday and low-light conditions, ensuring that every passer-by—regardless of background—can see and speak each name.

October 7th Memorial