Artist selected for 22nd and Market memorial

BARBARA FOX, a 1988 graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was selected yesterday to design a memorial sculpture at 22nd and Market streets, the scene of last year's fatal building collapse that will be transformed into a park next year.

Fox, who does art restorations and teaches at Montessori Children's House of Valley Forge, said her concept was inspired by Greek temples and by Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The design is essentially a house-shaped silhouette with a window for each of the six people who died in the June 2013 demolition collapse. A seventh window will represent the 13 others who were injured. (The family of a man who was inside the building and died three weeks after the collapse recently filed a wrongful-death lawsuit).

Fox said she would like the families of the deceased to be able to customize the windows, perhaps by selecting a color, texture or item to be placed inside, depending on the type of glass used.

"I wanted to make it personal for the individuals who lost family members," said Fox, who lives in Wayne and has a 22-year-old son who attends Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

"All of the family members were moved by Barb's ability to capture and reflect the meaning of the memorial," city Treasurer Nancy Winkler said in a statement. "We are so appreciative of all the work and emotion Barb invested into developing her concept."

Winkler's daughter, Anne Bryan, 24, a student at PAFA, died in the collapse.

Fox will work with a team headed by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society to design and complete the park. A design workshop is scheduled for next month, with groundbreaking expected in the spring.