Champion's Walk at Corey Ingram Circle
Sean Hemmerle
The Champion’s Walk at Corey Ingram Circle is a multipart civic sculpture project that celebrates civic activism and leadership in a disinvested part of Poughkeepsie, New York.
The roundabout, located within the city’s Northside neighborhood, was a congested intersection that was named in 2018 to honor the US Navy Petty Officer First Class Corey Ingram, a young officer who died while serving on the USS John McCain in 2017. In 2022, the project site was expanded to commemorate local leaders who had a significant impact on the northside of Poughkeepsie, an area which has been disadvantaged for the entirety of the city’s history.
Sean Hemmerle
© Sean Hemmerle
MASS collaborated with the Poughkeepsie Alliance and several prominent social activists and civic leaders to develop the Champion’s Walk to serve as a new gateway marking the northern entrance to the city. The memorial consists of a Corten steel ring and five steel bollards etched with the names and images of local leaders to commemorate narratives of collective activism and leadership in Poughkeepsie.
Partnering with local metal fabricators, we identified opportunities to introduce a cohort of students to the craft while the elements were produced.
MASS
Each marker tells the story of a member of the community, providing new insights and narratives of the city and its people. Their names, biographies, and face were assembled and reviewed by family members, and the final designs were pointillized in a technique similar to old newsprint photographs before being laser cut and drilled into the steel. These legacy lanterns are internally illuminated at night, directing light upwards in a gesture of optimism and collective strength.
MASS
Sean Hemmerle
These markers create an expandable memorial to inscribe the perimeter of this new traffic circle at the edge of the city as a presentation of beauty, craft, civic pride, and collective identity. The circle celebrates dimensions of the city’s history that had never been fully acknowledged, and builds solidarity for neighborhoods that have historically been marginalized and neglected.
Sean Hemmerle
Sean Hemmerle
Sean Hemmerle
