The Reimagining the Enslaved African Burial Ground at Van Cortlandt Park project, led by Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Design Trust for Public Space, and Immanuel Oni of Liminal sp, has selected three design teams through its Design Ideas Competition, aiming to generate new visions for a memorial honoring the site. 

Three teams, Sunsum Collective (led by GROUND3D), JIMA studio and Leon Pinkster Azalea Collaborative, were selected from a pool of 61 submissions, with finalists interviewed by a Legacy Council made up of local Bronx organizations, community members, descendants, and artists.

With support from the Mellon Foundation, Reimagining is working to elevate public awareness of the largely unmarked Enslaved African Burial Ground in Van Cortlandt Park and to develop a community-informed vision for a future permanent memorial—one that connects Bronx residents and visitors to the site’s history, acknowledges its painful legacy, and creates space for gathering, education, and healing.

The three selected teams will develop design concepts while serving as stewards of dialogue, land, memory, and future-making:

• Rodney Leon/ Leon Pinkster Azalea Collaborative: Leon "Pinkster Azalea Collaborative" is a collaboration between Rodney Leon, Elgin Cleckley (_mpathic design), and Creative Urban Alchemy established for the Reimagining of Van Cortlandt Park's Enslaved African Burial Ground. The Collaborative's founder Rodney Leon, is the designer of the African Burial Ground Memorial in New York City, which is the first National Monument in the United States dedicated to the contributions of people of African descent. Mr. Leon is also the Architect and Designer of the United Nations Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. His practice Rodney Leon Architect has a unique expertise focusing on the design of sacred, cultural and public spaces over the last 30 years.  Ifeoma Ebo: Nigerian-American, Brooklyn-based public artist, educator at the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College and Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy (CUA) - an award-winning design studio working at the intersection of art, architecture, urban design & planning. With a career spanning two decades, she is renowned for her transformative work in urban landscapes, with a keen focus on equity and design excellence. She has significantly impacted urban design and development projects, partnering with prestigious institutions like the United Nations, FIFA, and the NYC Mayor's Office. She is joined by Ximena Diaz Velasco, a Community Designer at CUA trained in landscape architecture and international development. Elgin Cleckley is an award-winning Architect, Civic designer, and Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, where he leads the internationally recognized _mpathic design initiative, pedagogy, and design practice. He has collaborated on major civic and cultural projects across North America over three decades and helped realize the groundbreaking Weston Family Innovation Centre at the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto). Current design projects include Brookes (Revisited) installation at the Beck Center in Knoxville (Tennessee), Royal Museum Greenwich (UK), and the Charles Wright African American Museum (Detroit), and a public space at Kindlewood (Charlottesville).

• Ujijji Davis Williams/ JIMA studio: A landscape architectural design and urban planning studio that collaborates with community groups, organizations, and builders committed to culturally relevant placemaking and strategic implementation. JIMA Studio contributed to  a conceptual design investigation interpreting  the history of the Forrest Slave Mart, a holding facility for enslaved Africans and African Americans owned and operated by Nathan Bedford Forrest in the midst of Downtown Memphis.

• Sunsum Collective: a collaboration between Wil Jones, founding principal of NYC-based urban practice GROUND3D, architect Deena Darby, cultural preservationist and placemaker Talisha Ward, landscape architectural designer and herbalist Simone Delaney, and urban planner Nolen Scruggs. The interdisciplinary team has expertise in community engagement, historic preservation, landscape design, and public programming. Team members have contributed to community-engaged planning and design efforts related to the Flatbush African Burial Ground, advancing heritage corridor strategies, participatory design processes, ecological design interventions, and collaborative approaches to cultural preservation and public memory.

The three Design Guides teams will produce a framework to advance the project toward future realization. 

Guided by the Legacy Council, the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance hosted a series of public programs and events throughout the summer and fall of 2025 to engage park neighbors and visitors about the recently uncovered history. In addition to expanding conversations around memorialization and mourning, the programming included  a community surveyto ensure that the outcomes of the Design Ideas Competition align with the needs of the neighborhood and descendants. 

"It is an honor to help shape a dignified resting ground for the enslaved Africans and Native Americans who labored here until freedom – and until death,” said Ujijji Davis Williams, PLA, ASLA, Principal Landscape Architect of JIMA Studio. “We approach this work with deep humility and a responsibility to the ancestors, and to the Van Cortlandt Park community, guided by a vision that connects the past and future. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and sharing an approach rooted in remembrance and care."

“The Van Cortlandt Park African Burial Ground Reimagining shall reveal the power and potential that lost, hidden and forgotten histories have to transform society's civic landscapes and collective consciousness,” said Rodney Leon, AIA, NOMA Principal of Rodney Leon Architect PLLC. “The Reimagining process established by the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance and Design Trust for Public Space is an innovative model for design collaboration and community engagement that will generate visionary and transformative ideas to memorialize this historic site. The Design Guides are honored to work closely with the Legacy Council and stakeholders to generate ideas for the memorialization of this Sacred Public Space rooted in the traditions, rituals, legacies, and experiences of African descendant communities buried in Van Cortlandt Park.”

“Designing for an enslaved African burial ground requires a different approach—one that recognizes memory as embedded in the landscape and ongoing in the present,” said Wil jones, Founding Principal of GROUND3D. “As the Legacy Council has made clear, this is not a recreational space, but a site of healing, reflection, and ongoing connection to ancestors who remain present on the site and beneath our feet. Our work connects the histories of enslaved labor that shaped this landscape to present-day infrastructure, situating the burial ground alongside projects like Tibbetts Brook to acknowledge both those buried here and the systems they built that continue to shape the city today.”

“We understand that honoring the Enslaved African Burial Ground must begin by acknowledging the painful history of the park’s origins as a plantation and recognizing the people whose labor and lives shaped this land,” said Stephanie Ehrlich, Executive Director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. “Thanks to the Mellon Foundation, Van Cortlandt Park Alliance can shepherd a process whereby the community’s vision for reimagining this sacred space can take shape. This project is about listening to the community and co-creating something meaningful together. Our role is to make space for dialogue, creativity, and healing. We cannot wait to see what ideas are generated by the Design Guides and the community in the lab!” 

“Too often, the histories embedded in our public spaces go unrecognized,” said Matthew Clarke, Executive Director of the Design Trust for Public Space. “Reimagining the Enslaved African Burial Ground is working to ensure that this sacred site is not only acknowledged, but can sustain an ongoing dialogue with the community. By inviting visionary design teams to engage Bronx residents and descendants in shaping a future memorial, our partnership with the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance advances a model of public space that tells the full story of our city and creates room for remembrance, reflection, and collective healing.”

“One of the ways we heal from buried history is by being able to see beyond the situation,”said Immanuel Oni, Creative Director of Liminal sp. “Guided by the Legacy Council, this process brings in new and experienced design voices to reimagine the burial ground. Doing so honors the lasting legacies still embedded in the park landscape developed by enslaved people who lived and worked here. Reimagining this burial site and landscape through multiple lenses creates a new approach in turning a history of grief into a place of possibility.”

The design teams will discuss initial ideas and their practices at a public panel about the project and the history of the site on April 21st at Lehman College in the Bronx, in partnership with Lehman Campus Honors & Scholar Engagement. The final design concepts will be unveiled at a Juneteenth 2026 exhibition, to be announced. 

Press can email amauzy@designtrust.org for media RSVP. Follow @vcpalliance and @designtrustnyc for updates on upcoming programs and future events, or subscribe for email notifications.

About Reimagining the Enslaved African Burial Ground

About Van Cortlandt Park Alliance: Van Cortlandt Park Alliance is the sole nonprofit partner working with NYC Parks for Van Cortlandt Park. VCPA’s mission is to preserve, support, and promote the ecology, recreation, cultural arts, and history of Van Cortlandt Park. VCPA was formed in 2019 by merging two preexisting nonprofits whose 35 years of combined history lay the foundation for excellence in educational programming, cultural events, advocacy, and restoration projects. VCPA’s Enslaved People Project (EPP), in coordination with local nonprofits, the park’s community, and NYC Parks, has been working to share untold stories and the unvarnished history of Van Cortlandt Park, once a plantation, through cultural programs and events, ceremonies, classes, virtual walking tours, and new signage.

About Design Trust for Public Space: The Design Trust for Public Space is a non-profit organization that unlocks the potential of New York’s public spaces. Our unique model catalyzes design ideas into action for a more just and equitable city. As a leader of the public space movement, the Design Trust brings together city agencies, community groups, and private sector experts to develop collaborative projects and new research to improve the well-being of residents and create systemic change throughout the five boroughs. With longtime partner Liminal sp, the Design Trust is working with the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance on the design ideas competition and related project activities. The organization is connecting the important needs of this project with the broader design and community development communities.