Kamerin Creighton Humanities
Recalling History Through Heterotopic Space
Scholars Journal
At the forefront of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Black community members of Minneapolis installed an informal memorial at the site of George Floyd’s murder, known as George Floyd Square, honoring those killed by police brutality. Nearly six years later, the memorial remains at the intersection of 38th St. and Chicago Ave. Recently, the city passed a redevelopment project to restore traffic flow around the memorial. Although existing material addresses the sociopolitical impact of George Floyd’s death, there’s no research on how the new redesign plans affect the informal memorial's established significance. To address this imbalance, my research project asks: how will plans to formalize the surrounding space be implemented without disrupting the memorial's continuity? Through on-site mapping and interviews, I will examine how the design, materiality, and spatial placement of George Floyd Square reshapes collective historical memory and the urban fabric it’s situated in.
Major: Landscape Architecture
Mentor: Karl Kullmann