Tribute to Olympic and Paralympic Athletes

Tribute To Olympic and Paralympic Athletes

Dodds Park, Champaign, Illinois

The thing we long for, that we are, for one transcendent moment.

(James Russell Lowell)

The Tribute rises from an ordinary prairie landscape transformed into playing fields, gardens, and a community college campus. It honors the extraordinary achievements of Champaign County residents who have participated in the Olympic Games, and its granite platform is inscribed with their names, the inspiring words of James Russell Lowell, and the Olympic symbol of linked rings.

Visitors to the Tribute move from an approach walk to a series of intermediate platforms, then to the final, climactic platform from which they can view the surrounding countryside. The forced perspective of the approach walk and gateway gives the illusion of great depth, expressing the great endurance and long commitment required in the athletes’ pursuit of excellence. This rising progression is a metaphor for the path traveled by the Olympians as they compete, strive, and excel through discipline and desire.

The inscribed granite platform beyond the gateway—the smallest but grandest plateau—represents the pinnacle of achievement. Finally, the steps connecting that platform to the ground suggest the personal glory of achievement is transitory, and the process toward excellence must begin again.

The Tribute is conceived as a strong geometric counterpoint to its naturalistic setting. At the same time, it is physically and psychically connected to that setting. It is embedded in and grows out of the soil of its place, a symbolic reminder of the Olympians’ bond with the community that honors them.