New design unveiled for Palm Springs AIDS Memorial following months of public input ⋆ The Palm Springs Post

A rendering of what the newly-designed Palm Springs AIDS Memorial might look like when installed in Downtown Park.

After months spent listening to the community and reworking an original concept, images of an updated Palm Springs AIDS Memorial were released Thursday.

The images show a new design by artist Phillip K. Smith III named “The Well of Love.” It’s intended to offer viewers a sense of hope, loss, grief, gratitude and love when it’s put into place in Downtown Park.

Smith’s original design was a nine-foot-tall circular limestone sculpture with an empty hole in the middle. The new design — with renderings and complete information available here — will have three vertical, mirror-like faces, each containing a unique oval “pool of tears.” Visitors can see their reflections and the surrounding area intermingled with the ripples on each face of the memorial.

The original design, which was in the works for nearly 10 years, was unveiled for the first time in June 2021. However, some community members only became aware of it in the fall of 2023, and many were offended by the design, saying it felt disrespectful and evoked rude connotations.

Soon after the outcry over the original design boiled over, the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture Task Force promised to redesign the memorial and open the process up for more public input.

The task force hosted multiple listening sessions. The artist, Smith, participated in the meetings and said the conversations, stories, and memories shared with him gave him a wealth of ideas.

“It has felt like such a creative and beautiful process,” he said during a community town hall in March. “It’s been intensely emotional; I feel like I’m armed with the information I need.”

Eventually, the task force will restart the process of getting designs approved by different city departments and commissions, including the Public Arts Commission on Oct. 3 and the Palm Springs City Council on Nov. 14 at 5:30 pm. The meetings will be open to the public and members of the community are welcome to comment on the new design.

The goal is to start fabrication of the memorial early in 2025 and unveil it between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. The project had an initial cost estimate of $500,000. But with the new, larger design, that figure has now been set at $1.2 million. Those interested in contributing to the memorial can visit this website. The city is covering installation in Downtown Park.