Hans-Ekkehard Butzer, who plans to enroll as a master's candidate this coming fall in the Graduate School of Design, is one of the members of the German-based team that created the winning design for a memorial to be located at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.

On July 1, the Oklahoma City Memorial Foundation announced that the design created by Hans-Ekkehard Butzer, Torrey Butzer, and Sven Berg was chosen from 624 designs submitted from all 50 states and 23 countries. The team works together at Meyer Ernst and Partner in Berlin, as well as at Locus Bold Design, a building design and graphics firm founded by the Butzers in Austin, Texas, and Berlin in 1990.

"When you're an architect," Hans-Ekkehard Butzer told the Gazette yesterday, "you dream of an opportunity to work on a project that is so emotionally charged and has such a major significance for the community. This was an opportunity for us to strike a chord and to help the community work through the healing process."

The Locus Bold design includes 168 stone and glass chairs inscribed with the names of those who died in the bombing. By daylight the chairs will appear to be floating above their translucent bases. At night, the bases will be lighted and the names engraved in the blocks of glass will be illuminated. Nineteen of the chairs will be smaller than the others, in memory of the children.

The "footprint" of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building will be replaced by a grassy slope, and a reflecting pool will be built in front of the site of the demolished building. Under a canopy of trees, the empty chairs will be arranged in nine rows to evoke the nine floors of the building. The lone Survivor Tree, which currently stands north of where the chairs will be placed, will be encircled by a low stone wall on which the survivors' names will be engraved. The tree, which stood witness to the violence of that morning, now commemorates those who survived. An orchard of fruit trees will be planted to recognize those who provided help, strength, and comfort.