By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- When members of the city's Cambodian community set out months ago to design a monument that will be built on the grounds of City Hall, they attempted to create a structure that captures three distinct phases of its evolution in the Mill City: Its past, present and future.
In unveiling the final design over the weekend, one of the city's most prominent Cambodians, Bopha Malone, said precisely that has been accomplished.
The front of the monument will feature an image of a group of Cambodian immigrants, with Angkor Wat, a massive temple complex and one of Cambodia's biggest attractions, in the background.
The back side will have an image of an apsara, a mythic female figure that adorns many temples and inspires groups like Lowell's Angkor Wat Dance Troupe.
The front of a Khmer monument designed by Chantha Khem, a Lowell artist who moved from Cambodia to Lowell in 2005. Khem's design depicts immigrants coming to the United States, with Angkor Wat, a temple and one of Cambodia's most famous attractions, in the background. Submitted photo.
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The design was created by Chantha Khem, a full-time artist and father of two, moved to Lowell from Cambodia in 2005. He said he was honored by the community for choosing his work and thanked the city for its support for the monument.
Khem's design got 206 votes Saturday in a competition at the Glory Buddhist Temple. Two options got 99 and 41 votes each.
"Everyone was so excited," state Rep. Rady Mom said of the design and the voting process. "The community is very lucky to have an artist like Chantha Khem."
Mom, the first Cambodian-American state legislator in the United States, called the monument design something that will connect Cambodians to their heritage. Mom is co-chairing the monument planning committee.
Now that the committee has an image of what the monument will look like, it will get a cost estimate and then begin fundraising, Malone said. Based on other monuments around City Hall, which are all about 6 feet high and made of granite, the committee expects a cost of roughly $60,000, she said.
The Khmer monument could be in place as soon as September if fundraising goes well, said Mayor Rodney Elliott, who co-chairs the committee with Mom.
The monument will join several others in the area outside City Hall, including for Armenian, Irish, Lithuanian and Polish groups.
Discussions of exactly where the monument will go and what it will look like have also led to a broader look at John F. Kennedy Plaza, which sits out front of City Hall and the adjacent Police Department headquarters.
A preliminary plan for remaking the plaza calls for replacing the concrete expanse with grass and trees, and a new walkway lined with monuments that would run along the east side of City Hall. No funding or timetable exists yet for renovating the plaza.
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