Architects

The Australian Government Department of Social Services has terminated the competition-winning design for the National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in Canberra by architects Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley, citing "complex construction challenges."

Spresser and Besley said they were "blind sighted" by the decision to axe their design, after being informed by a journalist for The Australian in early February 2024.

The article had uncovered that the project had been secretly terminated in November 2023.

"We're a little bit bewildered by what happened," Besley said. "It just got axed in silence. We were just not expecting it to be honest."

Besley and Spresser stressed that they had enjoyed a good working relationship with the government project team, but, in the months leading up to the revelation, they had stopped receiving responses to their repeated inquiries on project updates.

Since the publication of The Australian article, the Department of Social Services (DSS) has updated its website and outlined the reasons for the termination.

Spresser and Besley's winning concept, "Transparency and Truth", proposed a series of catenary arches to be made from glass blocks with a meandering path encircling a meadow of perennial grasses and wildflowers.