FSU WOMEN'S ATHLETIC MEMORIAL
DESIGN
We will be redesigning the Heritage Fountain which sits on the campus of FSU in front of Doak Campbell Stadium.
Will will be keeping the bottom structure. Removing the top structure and changing the perspective of the column.
Drawing of the Design
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7 statues of women athletes purposely choosing to represent their sport.
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A empty spot in the back where the 8 statue would be and there is band of metal coming up from the base of the fountain that reads a quote that is raised in gold letters.
The 7 statues collectively represent FSU Women's Athletics.
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The Statue that sits at the front will be a women wearing a F-club shirt. F-club was the athletic club during the time of Florida State College for Women.
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The two to the side will be statues of Darby Cottle (Softball) and Sue Galkantos (Basketball).
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The two in the middle will be Kim Batten (track and field) and Gabrielle Reese (Volleyball).
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The two towards the back will be Mami Yamaguchi (Soccer) and Caroline Westrup (Golf).
The design of the Statues:
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Material of statues will be bronze to mimic the other statues on campus.
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Representational of the person that statue is off. Statues will be detailed and realistic.
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Non-Representational because we will not be naming the people the statues are off.
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Each statue will be dressed in the uniform of their sport to represent that department.
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The statues will get more modern as they go to the back of the fountain because the athletes are more recent as they move to the back.
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3D Model
Refrence for Quote
History of Women Athletics
The start of it all...
FSU has been one of the top universities in the nation to support and promoting women athletics. The women's athletic department has been around since the early 1900's when Florida State University was Florida State College for Women. The first ever women sport took place in 1968 which was volleyball.
FSU Women Athletics Branding
In 1974-1978 the Lady Seminole symbol was used to represent women athletics at the university. Also during this time period in 1975-76 FSU sponsored 7 women teams.
FSU Early Milestones:
Women Who Made Their Mark:
Kim Batten
1988-91: She set records in hurdle events at FSU. She also made it to NCAA Championship every year. She went on representing the United States winning the silver medal in 400 meter hurdles.
Sue Galkantas
Scoring with a total of 2,323 points. This was the most scored by a male done by a women!
Caroline Westrup
Earned All-American honors during her time playing at FSU. 1st-Team honors from the National Golf Coaches Association in 2006 and 2007. She also went to play as a member of the LPGA Tour.
Darby Cottle
Led the Lady Seminoles to consecutive AIAW slow pitch national championship in 1981-82. She was also the only player to have her number retired.
Gabrielle Reese
Leading the volleyball team in 1987-90. During her season she held the record for solo blocks. She then went on to play professionally as captain for Team Nike during a beach volleyball tour. She also became a Nike spokesperson.
Miami Yamaguchi
She was named as the top female player in NCAA in Soccer. She lead the team to their first national championship game. NSCAA also recognized her as Soccer Buzz and Soccer America Player of the Year and the ACC Offensive Player of the Year.
Purpose and Reasoning
Historical Relevance
Florida State University serves as a flaming torch for those who attend, work, and support the school. Most notably, the history of FSU focuses on achievements made in athletics. FSU's football team receives much of the praise allotted to athletics. With the spotlight predominantly men’s accomplishments in athletics, our memorial serves as an ode to commemorate women’s athletics, both past, and present. With this purpose, our Women’s memorial also celebrates the unique history of FSU.
Though founded in 1851, in 1905, The Florida Female college was created due to The Buckman Act which reorganized Florida Institutions. In 1909, it was renamed The Florida State College for Women and by 1933 it had grown to be the third-largest women's colleges in the United States. This bit of history, though known by some who have attended the university, is not advertised.
Design Elements Explained
We wanted to include aspects of the original Women's college with a focus on sports in our memorial. To represent this element, we re-designed the Heritage fountain to have seven statues. Each of the statues represents an important figure in FSU women's athletics throughout the years. Although the statues are designed with specific women in mind, we want to highlight the achievements of each sport. The statue in the front will dawn the original F-club shirt from the athletic club in place at the Florida State College for Women. This combination of past and present aids in bringing FSU women into the sports narrative, while also acknowledging the historic relevance of women in the school's past.
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Much like Maya Lin's Civil Rights memorial design, we included a circular aspect. It aids in representing a continuous community of women in the university, both past and present. As one walks around the fountain, the athletes become more modern in design and more recognizable in clothing- a walk through time is you will. This represents unity as well as transformations in the history of FSU women's athletic achievements.
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Along with a circular design, we utilized the columns already present from the Heritage fountain. By adjusting the perspective, we can have open passageways that act as "tunnels" to see into the past and present of women's sports.The statues, each representing a different sport and time period allows for people to see through the arches into another period in time where a different sport is highlighted.
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Another important design element we included, is the use of water as a reflective. We discussed, in length, how representative water can be in designs such as Maya Lin's Civil Rights Memorial and The 9/11 Memorial. We chose to keep the Heritage fountain and remove the torches at the top. We want the water to flow as a representation of women, change, transition, and reflection. When you get to the back of the design, the space will reflect the water. This is where you can see yourself as a completion of the circle, inviting students to engage with their role in women's achievements at the university.
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The quote, placed in raised gold lettering, representative of FSU school colors, will act as something that people should take from the memorial. The raised letters allow for touch and appear to be easily removed. We want those engaging with the memorial to resonate with the quote and see themselves as a part of the design. They should feel as if they can peel the message away from its structure to take with them.
Sports Uniforms
Columns
Water
Circular
Quote
Social Relevance
We decided on creating this project to represent the women of Florida State University. Seeing as though this college began as a women's college, we felt that just how great the women who have attended FSU have been had been lost among the history of all the men that have attended the school. While the statue will only have women athletes on it, we hope that through us representing the women athletes of the university that it will lead not only the students but also FSU to start recognizing more and more of the women that have had an impact on the university.
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The effect that we hope our monument has resonates with the idea of unity and equality. Our statue will convey these ideals by not separating the women based on what sport they played. We figured this way we could push the idea that all of these women stand together and support each other, hopefully conveying the message that all women should be supported and represented equally. The idea of equality would be conveyed just by the pure existence of this monument. The monument is meant to memorialize the achievements of all of the women athletes who have ever attended FSU. While we do not believe that the great men who have attended the university should not be memorialized, we do believe that women should get equal representation in the monuments and memorials set up around campus.
The effect that the great male athletes have had on the university is very well documented, however, the achievements of the women athletes do not seem to be given as much attention, even though the number of achievements is very similar. Since 1951, both women's sports teams, as well as individual women, have won a total of 9 of the 19 national championships that Florida State University has won during that time span.
Women's National Championships
Convergence
The red dot is where our memorial will be positioned.
Our memorial’s position and more importantly it’s adjacency is not an aspect of our design we want overlooked. When you hear FSU athletics you typically think of the FSU football team, and the stadium itself has a large physical presence. We place the memorial in front of not only the stadium, but the baseball field where women’s athletics has recently experienced great success.
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The public memory associated with our football team, which has become a huge part of the culture at FSU, has its periods filled with exaltations and periods filled with disgraces. While we are not trying to construct a public memory of FSU athletics as a whole, we are trying to bring to the surface a forgotten or overlooked aspect of FSU athletics. The women’s athletic department is rarely talked about. FSU women’s athletics has a history that predates Doak Campbell Stadium. While Doak Campbell does acknowledge women’s athletics in The Moore Athletic Center, very few FSU students and fans have made their way there. Therefore, our redesign of the Heritage fountain is going to be purposefully placed in front of Doak Campbell stadium so we physically convey the presence that women’s athletics already has. Having the memorial in the public space is similar to the Maya Lin’s "Civil Rights memorial" and "The Fist" in Detroit which both confront the space they occupy. We bring it into the public view and right in front of the space that shined over women’s athletic’s public memory.
It also has an aspect of interaction, people who circle around the ring of women athletes will then find themselves at the back of the fountain at an empty place where their reflection in the water can complete the circle. This is where we will place a quote for women empowerment. The quote we found is, “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice” (Bethany Hamilton). The quote would be raised gold letters on a bronze background that would stand out from the fountain and wrap around that side. Ideally, we would get a quote from an FSU women’s athlete. These quotes were just hard to find. The reflective aspect of the water invites and points towards the future of women's athletics at FSU.
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Our location is intentional and we are erasing the Heritage fountain, which is supposed to represent alumni. We believe that our redesign is corrective. We want to bring a positive aspect of Florida State to the surface. While we are constructing a positive public memory of FSU women’s athletics, which we believe it deserves, we are also making people acknowledge its need for a public memory. The Heritage fountain's purpose does not rely so much on the location, like our memorial. We did not want to add another fountain to that green area because of overcrowding which we saw in the Maya Lin’s Vietnam War memorial. The adjacency can certainly change the meaning of a design.