Battle Born: Memorial to Nevada’s Fallen Wins American Institute of Architects Regional Award

Nevada’s new Battle Born Memorial is the recent recipient of the 2019 Western Mountain Region American Institute of Architects Distinguished Honor Award. This is the highest honor a project can earn for the Western Mountain Region Awards and was the only project from Nevada to win an award! The Western Mountain Region consists of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

The selection process for designing and building the memorial included members of the Nevada Arts Council and the Veterans Services Commission. Fifteen artists vied for the project, but that number was narrowed down to three in 2016. In the end, the panel selected PUNCH Architecture from Las Vegas.

The memorial contains the names of the 894 Nevadans who died fighting to protect our country, dating back to the Civil War. The memorial’s ceiling contains metal plates with the names of the fallen cut out of the metal plate. The concept is to allow the light from the sun or moon above to reflect the names to the floor, or to the people inside the memorial.

In December of 2017, final funding for the project was announced. Construction was completed a year later with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held in November of 2018.

Punch Architect’s Zak Ostrowski called the award a big honor. He said PUNCH is now submitting the memorial for the American Institute of Architects National Award.

One of the AIA judges said, “This project is gorgeous… compelling in both content and graphic execution.  We appreciate the suggested materiality, craft, care and attention to detail.  It appears to be a very nice part of a civic park as both a connector and a place of contemplation."