National Mall to get D.C.'s first public memorial for fallen journalists

D.C.'s first public memorial honoring freedom of the press and fallen journalists is coming to the National Mall.

The big picture: The Fallen Journalists Memorial Fund , the group behind the project, was started a year after the 2018 Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis that killed five employees.

• The foundation was launched by David Dreier, a former congressman and chair of Tribune Publishing, which owned the Gazette at the time of the shooting.
• Congress approved the memorial in 2020, and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts gave the group the green light to begin designing last year.

The latest: The Fallen Journalists Memorial's first design concept renderings were released this week, and they show what would be Washington's first memorial made almost completely out of glass, per a release.

• The memorial would consist of pieces of horizontally stacked, solid glass elements representing fallen journalists. While seemingly laid in a random pattern, the elements would actually gather to form the site's center — a nod to the way journalists coalesce disparate facts to form a story.
• The glass memorial will look different from all angles, a reference to the many sides of a story journalists must consider to uncover the truth.

At the center will be a circular Remembrance Hall displaying the First Amendment's text.

• The structure will glow at night with a view of the Capitol in the background — a metaphor for the press' watchdog role.
• Once open, it will offer educational programming for visitors.

Zoom in: The memorial's proposed site is a triangular stretch of land bordered by Maryland Avenue, Third Street and Independence Avenue SW, near the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building.

• The project will be funded entirely by private donations, per a release.

What we're watching: The group's goal is to get final sign-off on the design by next year, break ground on the site in 2026 and finish it in 2028.