Year: 2016
Type: Commissions, Architectural Landscapes, Memorials.
Project Team: Albert Orozco, Chris Detjen, Ron Rael, Joris Komen, Santiago Casal.
Cesar Chavez’s historic contributions to the struggles of economic and environmental justice are rooted in his personal history on this land. As a teenager, Chavez worked the fields of Delano, California. Those experiences directly informed his decision to launch the Delano Grape Boycott of 1965, one of the earliest and most historically significant labor actions of his life. Twenty years later, Chavez returned to Delano to speak out against environmental degradation caused by the abuse of toxic pesticides among growers. Chavez’s lesser-known interests of the human relationship to the natural environment has been central to the design of the Cesar Chavez Solar Calendar Memorial.
In 1996 the City of Berkeley renamed this parcel of land, located in the Berkeley Marina, in Cesar Chavez’s name. A council of community members led by Santiago Casals has been working since then in an effort to develop a memorial to Cesar Chavez. A modest memorial was constructed near the northwest corner of the park. During the 2015-16 school year, at the request of this council and with the guidance of Associate Professor Ron Rael, we began working on a schematic design for a new memorial that aimed to address Chavez’s legacy of environmental activism by generating compelling images that could be used to raise funds for further redevelopment at the site.
Our architectural landscape frames the sunrise and sunset of the equinox and solstices; four important seasonal times for farmworkers. The space is ritualized by these times and by Cesar Chavez’s date of birth which closely coincides with the spring equinox. The undulating landscape attempts to place the individual in a contemplative environment with a variety of shadow contrast where a 360-degree view of the bay area is the most prevalent feature of the site. Lastly, the project is centered on the Cesar Chavez stone, the heart of the project that is marked by the shadow of the adjacent sundial at sunrise at March 31st. The passage of time in a human life is a difficult thing for anyone to comprehend. The Cesar Chavez Solar Calendar Memorial attempts to remind visitors that time is linked directly to the movements of the sun, to light and shadows, and to the earth; all important features that contributed to the legacy of Cesar Chavez.