Nearly 10 years after the shooting, the City of Orlando is moving forward with the design of a permanent memorial to honor the 49 people who were killed at the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting.
On Thursday, Orlando held a public meeting to present 30% of the design plan for the upcoming memorial – a key milestone in the process, according to the city.
“What we wanted to provide was an opportunity to view a new day and a new beginning for our city and for ourselves,” said Dan Michael Trbovich, senior architect with Borrelli + Partners and lead architect on the project.
In 2016, a gunman opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub during a Latin-themed night. He killed 49 people and injured 53 others. The gunman was also killed by law enforcement.
In December 2025, the city began moving artifacts, such as chandeliers and the bar top, from the nightclub on the corner of Orange Avenue and Kaley Street ahead of a planned demolition of the building.
Thursday’s design presentation showed “Memorial Park,” which will be built where the club stood. The plans include a reflection pool, a new stylized Pulse tower, a healing garden, a fountain wall, a survivor’s wall honoring those who were injured, and a row of columns – all with a tribute to the 49 on each column face.
The “Angel Ellipse” features a rainbow color gradient that changes throughout the entire stretch of that ellipse, Trbovich said.
The design comes after a long and contentious history over the ownership of the property and what to do with the space, and how to memorialize the victims.
At Thursday’s meeting, not everyone was pleased with the proposed plans.
“It shows zero empathy and consideration for the survivors and victims. You're perverting their traumas and deaths for a tacky, performative rainbow spectacle,” said Christine Hanavan, a Winter Springs resident who is part of the LGBTQ+ community and spoke during a public comment section of the meeting.
“The 49 who were murdered deserve a respectful, dignified, and peaceful memorial that their families control, not the city of Orlando. The Pulse Memorial shouldn't be an over-designed, attention-grabbing tourist destination and vanity project,” she said.
The next steps of the project come next week, when Gomez Construction Co. will remove the featured Pulse sign that hangs over Orange Avenue.
“The week after that, the building will be removed. It'll take a week or two, maybe a little more, to remove the materials from the site,” said Stephen Corrow, a Gomez senior project manager.
Later in May, the design team will submit its plans for 60% of the memorial. Another public meeting will be held following the submission. Construction is estimated to begin on September 26, Corrow said.
Nancy Rosado, an Orlando resident who worked with Pulse survivors and family members, was pleased with the plans, but more so that a plan is finally being put into action.
“This has been unfinished business for 10 years, and this is finally moving that forward and helping people to move forward,” she said.
