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The Mellon Monuments Project Impact Assessment

Evaluating the impact of investing in the public memory landscape

Sector

Philanthropy

Region

North America

Timespan

2023-2024

Site visit to one of the recently completed Mellon-funded new monuments — the Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark, NJ by Studio Cooke John (www.cookejohn.com/harriet-tubman-monument). Credit: Gehl

The Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project Initiative is amplifying efforts throughout the country to rethink the American public memory landscape. Three years into the five year program, Gehl conducted an impact assessment to uncover the emerging outcomes and help the foundation adjust and prioritize their grant-making efforts moving forward.

Team tours site of Minidoka, a former Japanese internment camp in Idaho, where the grantee organization Friends of Minidoka Internment is working to develop ‘Beyond the Barbed Wire: Japanese American Stories of the Pacific Northwest’ — a collection of virtual walking tours related to sites of Japanese American incarceration in the Pacific Northwest. Credit: Gehl
Site visit to Montpelier, where the Montpelier Foundation’s Memorialization Project is working with a committee of descendents to memorialize individuals who were enslaved in James Madison’s home in Montpelier, VA. This work involves archaeological work on-site to identify burial grounds and the design of a physical memorial. Credit: Gehl

Elevating knowledge from local leaders to guide funding

As a team of design practitioners, social scientists, and researchers, Gehl’s perspective elevates spatial experience, community voices, and
the power of place in shaping our collective memory. Gehl developed
an evaluation framework and multi-method research plan based on the initiative’s guiding vision and intended outcomes. Through stories and quantitative findings, this evaluation illustrates the design, engagement, and systemic drivers of inclusive monuments that move people, communities, and systemic change.

The Mellon Foundation has committed $500 Million to build on nationwide efforts to rethink the American public memory landscape and fund the creation of new monuments — rethink existing ones and deepen public engagement with our commemorative landscape. The Gehl team devised a framework to evaluate how the initiative is impacting four actors: the grantees, the Monuments Project team, the public memory field(s), and the general public more broadly.

The research included a document review focused on the 84 grant proposals awarded to date, engagement with grantees through both a broad online survey and 15 site visits across four regions, and hour-long interviews with 13 public memory experts from diverse disciplines and geographies.

Ultimately, this work will inform the Foundation’s strategic planning efforts and ensure the Monuments Project is well positioned to respond to the emerging national conversation around our shared histories.

Gehl’s impact assessment report synthesized learnings from conversations, site visits, document review, surveys, and expert interviews about the many ways that the Mellon Monuments Project is sparking change toward a more just commemorative landscape — from the individual to the systemic level. Credit: Gehl
Julia Day, Project Director, Partner Eamon O’Connor, Senior Project Manager Clara Bitter, Senior Designer Marina Recio Rodriguez, Senior Designer
The public realm poses a challenge to healthy food access in peripheral neighborhoods of Bogotá. Steep terrain, lack of transportation, and limited healthy food offerings make it difficult for Bogotanos to access the fresh produce needed to cook at home. The nature of the public realm forces people to rely on processed and fast food that is more accessible and heavily advertised. Credit: Gehl

Working across silos to address Bogotá’s food deserts through public space improvements

  • Community Engagement
  • Social Spatial Research
  • Urban Strategy
Ajuda residents have a median income in the bottom 30% of Lisbon’s earnings and well below the city’s average (2009). The neighborhood’s population nearly doubles daily due to the influx of university staff and students. Credit: Gehl

Improving food access in a disinvested community in Lisbon

  • Community Engagement
  • Social Spatial Research
  • Urban Strategy
Due to investments in large-scale infrastructure, the density of Melbourne’s peripheral areas is increasing. This is causing significant changes in the urban fabric of suburban centers. To measure changes over time, Gehl established a benchmark study in each of the station precincts focused at impacts on the public realm and changes in public life patterns. Credit: Suburban Rail Loop Authority

Enabling future impact assessment of Melbourne’s expanding rail infrastructure

  • Social Spatial Research
  • Urban Mobility
  • Urban Strategy
Credit: Gehl

Reimagining Duisburg, Germany’s industrial site as a vibrant public destination

  • Place Activation
  • Social Spatial Research
  • Urban Strategy
Wilton Park, developed by IPUT Real Estate, is a landmark mixed-use development in the heart of Dublin Southside. As part of the development, new office workplaces are complemented by a transformed public realm, enhancing connectivity, accessibility, and vibrancy. Credits: IPUT Real Estate, Dublin

Measuring the impact of placemaking at Wilton Park, Dublin

  • Social Spatial Research
  • Urban Mobility
  • Urban Strategy
Koen Dori, one of the central streets in Shibuya, North from the famous scramble crossing, was closed for vehicles but open to people walking to enjoy public spaces in an unusual way for Tokyo. Credit: Gehl

Telling Shibuya, Tokyo’s story through human-centered data

  • Place Activation
  • Community Engagement
  • Social Spatial Research

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