Committee formed for memorial park at site of building collapse

A committee is being formed to raise funds for and create a memorial honoring the victims of last year's deadly building collapse in Center City.

The group -- which includes family members, urban planning officials, business leaders and others -- wants to build a memorial park at 22nd and Market streets, where six people died in June after a building being demolished toppled onto an adjoining Salvation Army thrift store.

The committee says it hopes to have a temporary memorial in place by June 5, the one-year anniversary of the collapse, with a permanent park to follow.

The effort to build a park began in September, when Nancy Winkler, the city treasurer and mother of 24-year-old Anne Bryan, who was killed in the incident, posted a petition on Change.org.

Conceptual designs for the temporary memorial are in the works.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, whose chief of staff, Nancy Goldenberg, is a member of the committee, has set up a fund for public contributions supporting the park.

The group says Mayor Michael Nutter supports the group's mission, a stance mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald confirmed.

Winkler and PFM Group chairman John White are leading the committee.

Other members include: Jay Bryan, Winkler's husband; Philadelphia Housing Authority general counsel Barbara Adams; Center City Residents Association president Jeff Braff; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts president and CEO David Brigham; Robert Coleman, victim Kimberly Finnegan's fiancé; Cozen & O'Connor vice chairman Thomas Decker; Ceisler Media and Issue Advocacy senior director Kirk Dorn; Laurel Hill Cemetery president Alexander Hoskins; Mercator Advisors principal David Seltzer; Penn Praxis executive director Harris Steinberg; Brandywine Realty Trust president Jerry Sweeney; and Mother Bethel African American Methodist Episcopal Church senior pastor Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler.