Dr. MLK Memorial Designer - Derly McKissack

McKissack & McKissack led a design-build joint venture to construct the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, which commemorates the memory and spirit of the civil rights leader. The MLK Memorial Foundation selected McKissack as the architect of record for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Firm: McKissach McKissack In 2000, the judges selected ROMA Design Group’s plan for a stone with Dr. King’s image emerging from a mountain. The plan’s theme referenced a line from King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech: “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” The final design includes a massive carved mountain with a slice pulled out of it, symbolizing the “Stone of Hope” being hewn from the “Mountain of Despair.”