Vision for long-delayed memorial to Pulse victims finally comes into view

Light could soon cast rainbow colors into a reflecting area at the site of thePulse shooting in Orlando.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

Long-delayed plans for a memorial appear to be moving forward in Orlando after years of financial scandal and public criticism. A Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee on Tuesday approved a conceptual plan on how best to remember the primarily LGBTQ+ and Latino victims of the notorious mass shooting, most of those Latino and LGBTQ.

“It was a thoughtful process that involved those most impacted, the families and survivors,” said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, the out Orlando leader who long represented the neighborhood where Pulse once operated.

The city intends to tear down the club, which remains standing nearly nine years after the June 12, 2016 attack in which shooter Omar Mateen killed 49 people while claiming allegiance to ISIS before dying at the hands of police.

When the Pulse is finally razed, a reflection space will be established in the footprint of the building. A reflection pool will be installed where the dance floor once existed, the bottom decorated with a rainbow heart logo connected with a jagged line evocative of a human pulse. This area will be surrounded by 49 canopy columns honoring the victims killed at the site, with rainbow-colored glass connecting each pillar.

“I am personally relieved they are tearing the building down,” Sheehan said. “It was a gaping wound on this community, and a reminder of the mismanagement of One Pulse Foundation. We will move forward as a city and get this completed so there is a respectful place to honor victims and survivors.”

Orlando City Commissioners must still meet for a workshop on Feb. 24, but the city already has started working with Catalyst Design Group and Maker Barrios Architects on finalizing the plan. Officials will issue a request for builders after the workshop.

The citypurchased the club in 2023, after a foundation formed to run a museum at the sitedissolved amid scrutiny of its spending, which included more than $6.5 million on buying land and designing a facility. The plans were abandoned entirely, and the city set out to create a more passive and respectful memorial instead.

Many families of those killed remain skeptical of the city’s intentions.

“Orlando doesn’t have an infrastructure of morality to help it navigate hundreds of millions of dollars that they stand to gain by exploiting a gay mass shooting,” said Christine Leinonen, whose son Drew waskilled in the Pulse attack alongside partner Juan Guerrero. “And just the opposite. Orlando's underground tunnels like the tunnels at Disney World, full of corruption. So I don’t expect them to do the right thing.

“When and if Orlando starts to make the turn into changing the focus from Pulse memorial to what I believe they really want — and that's a tourist destination with a visitors center and a mini museum so to speak — I will do everything within my power to stop my son's life of dignity be tarnished by that greed yet again.”

The plans now include significant infrastructure but no active museum. But there will be a visitor pavilion with public accommodations and a limited exhibition space.

In addition to the reflecting space, there will be a Survivor’s Commons in tribute to those who lived through the attack, including a seating are next to a dedicated survivor’s tree. An “Angel Personal Effects Capsule” will sit in a private gathering space for families of victims to leave flowers, banners, and other personal mementos.

Renderings show a wall with large lettering in English and Spanish dedicating the facility “for all those who just wanted to dance.”

An elliptical walkway evocative of the Pulse logo will connect the canopy columns, which will have rainbow glass panels. There will also be a “healing and prism” garden intended to represent hope.