CINCINNATI — Less than a month after announcing final details of a long-discussed memorial to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the City of Cincinnati has suspended the project while city leaders evaluate alternative approaches for celebrating the legacy of the civil rights icon.

Interim City Manager John Curp sent a memo to members of City Council on Thursday notifying them of the decision regarding the $1 million monument envisioned for the northeast corner of MLK Drive and Reading Road in the Avondale neighborhood.

A city committee voted in late July to pick the concept developed by Re:site Studio, a national design firm that works with artists from around the nation. No members of Re:site’s project team are from Cincinnati.

The firm’s “Light of Hope” design featured six pillars made of stained glass set in a circular configuration around a bronze sculpture of King on a stained concrete plaza. The concept called for each pillar to feature images — some more general, others Cincinnati-specific — representing the six principles of nonviolence taught by King.

Shortly after announcing the design, the city received “overwhelming feedback” from community leaders, Curp wrote. He went on to say those concerns led to a “need to reassess how best to achieve this goal” of honoring MLK’s legacy.

A rendering of the proposed "Light of Hope' MLK memorial in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of City of Cincinnati)

When asked for further comment on the community feedback about the project, the city spokesperson referred to the memo.

Plans called for the unveiling of the new memorial to take place in August 2023 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

“I’m encouraged to hear about the city’s decision to not move forward with Re:site as the developer for the new MLK project in Avondale because I hope it opens the door for local artists, specifically Black artists, to get a chance to lead the project,” said Nathan Ivey, founder of CinDigital Media and host of the Nathan Ivey Show, a daily digital talk show focused on issues in Cincinnati’s Black communities.

The community feedback Curp referenced didn’t surprise Ivey, a longtime Cincinnati resident. Ivey had questions about the makeup of the selection committee and it bothered him that local artists weren’t going to be involved, especially given the nature of the project. 

“We should be investing in Cincinnatians,” he said.

Ivey’s biggest concern was about engagement with the community, specifically in Avondale. He feels the city should have done more.

“The days of city leadership dictating to the community what is best for the community, without real engagement, should be numbered,” he added.

The news from the city ends, at least temporarily, a process that began in May 2021 with Council’s allocation of the funding for the project.

The project’s selected site had another MLK Jr. memorial from 1987 to 2017. The city moved it to MLK Park in North Avondale because of work on the nearby MLK Drive/Interstate 71 interchange.

At the time, the city promised to build a new memorial to create a gathering space honoring King and other heroes of the local civil rights movement in the heart of Avondale.

A screen grab of the City of Cincinnati's MLK Memorial website as of Friday, Aug. 19. (Photo courtesy of City of Cincinnati)

The city launched what’s called a “request for qualifications” in August 2021 to “local, regional, national and international artists, design professionals or teams” to identify a list of potential candidates, based on information about the project from the city’s website. 

As of Friday afternoon, that website was offline. 

Throughout the process, the city stated it would conduct a robust community engagement campaign to ensure the final project is “informed by and a reflection of the local community’s desire to honor” King, according to a project update Curp sent Council in late July.

The city’s department of Planning and Engagement held online public engagement sessions March 30 and April 5 of this year, the city said. 

Each of the seven semifinalists took part and had to incorporate the “thoughts and feelings of the community into their final design proposals,” the July memo states. The city also hosted a survey for residents for more than two weeks in April. 

About 100 people took part in “either the engagement sessions, the survey, or on the committee,” the city said.

The ultimate decision on the memorial design came down to a vote by a selection committee.

Only city employees could vote on the ultimate design because of procurement requirements. But the selection committee also had residents as non-voting members. Former City Manager Paula Boggs Muething made those appointments in 2021 with input from Christopher Smitherman, then the city’s vice mayor.

After selecting Re:site as the preferred artists, the city administration told City Council in late July it had started negotiating a contract with the firm. Part of the negotiations included coming up with a plan for additional community outreach and involvement.

The goal, according to the July memo, was to ensure the memorial “reflects the local community, its connection to the civil rights icon, and a likeness of Dr. King of which we can be proud to showcase here in Cincinnati.”

In his most recent report to Council, Curp thanked the Re:site team members for the proposal and their “willingness to collaborate with the City and the community on this important project.” It also notes the decision “was not made lightly” and it’s not a commentary on Re:site’s work.

It’s not yet clear what the city’s next steps will be. In his memo, Curp noted the city administration planned to use the next few weeks to “reevaluate how to proceed with the memorial on the site.”

“The City of Cincinnati remains committed to the construction of a world-class and community-centric memorial honoring Dr. King at the northeast corner of MLK Jr. Drive and Reading Road,” he wrote.