Bronze from dismantled Robert E. Lee statue used in Charlottesville park pavilion by MASS and Dana King

The design proposal by MASS and artist Dana King to transform bronze from Charlottesville’s dismantled statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee into a structure and redesigned public landscape has been selected as the winning design in the Swords Into Plowshares public art project. The announcement was made by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on the fifth anniversary of the statue's removal.

Titled ROOTED, the scheme will reimagine Market Street Park as a public space centered on community gathering, cultural expression, and reflection, drawing on West African symbolism and the baobab tree as its primary organizing motif.

The proposal is structured around five interconnected scales: the park, plaza, pavilion, people, and planting strategy. At its center is a pavilion inspired by the baobab tree, which serves as a focal point for gathering beneath the park’s existing tree canopy. The structure is designed with seven entrance passages supported by...