1 October Memorial Committee sets budget, grading criteria

The 1 October Memorial Committee approved a budget of $25 million to $30 million to create the final memorial, but members decided Thursday that the budget was among the least important criteria they will use to judge architectural teams.

Teams interested in creating the memorial were required to submit their applications by Oct. 31. The 22 candidate teams that submitted an application will be narrowed down by a jury to five by January.

The memorial will honor the 60 victims and thousands of survivors who were part of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The shooting unfolded across the street from Mandalay Bay on Oct. 1, 2017, the final night of the Route 91 Harvest music festival.

During its monthly meeting Thursday, the seven-person memorial committee discussed judging criteria and priorities. The final five teams will be judged based on 10 points, but the committee’s priority is on the design concept and rendering, public input and community outreach the team incorporated.

The teams also will be judged on how they can imagine people using the memorial and what events and education can be incorporated. The lesser-important judging criteria is the team itself and its budget expectation.

Each team will be required to hire a certified estimator to determine its budget.

A lengthy discussion among committee members helped determine the budget, based on the cost of other memorials around the country and expertise from committee members Robert Fielden, an architect, and artists Rebecca Holden and Harold Bradford.

“Every seven years the price of construction doubles,” Fielden said, urging for at least a $20 million budget. “We’re going to be looking at seven years by the time this gets finished.”

Creative submissions were due Oct. 31, and 123 people submitted drawings, songs, photos and poems that the design teams will take into consideration when creating their proposals.

The design teams also are expected to consider water conservation, renewable energy, parking, weather, a sense of security in the open field, revenue ideas and minimizing the line of sight to Mandalay Bay, the committee decided Thursday.

“Incorporating security into this design is very important for people that are going to go out there,” committee member and retired Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Chief Kelly McMahill said during the meeting. “The survivors feel very exposed when they go there still.”

MGM Resorts International donated 2 acres of private land on the Las Vegas Strip to Clark County in August 2021 for the memorial.

The final five teams are scheduled to be presented to the committee in late January.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.