Veterans Memorial Park, near the intersection of Faraday Avenue and Cannon Road, will become Carlsbad’s largest park once completed in 2026. It will also become a place to recognize and honor the nation’s veterans, the first such location in Carlsbad. 

The park has been designed based on community input, with places for quiet contemplation as well as active uses like the city’s first bike track and a nature inspired playground. 

Click here for a virtual tour of the site of the future Veterans Memorial Park. 

On the upper plateau of Veterans Memorial Park, a separate permanent public art piece will be installed at the highest point of the park, following the city’s Art in Public Places guidelines. As a site-specific piece, the public art will serve as a truly special piece to honor those who have served our country.

To help guide the public art for this space, input was gathered from the community and included in the Call for Artists issued in August 2023. A copy of the public input report can be viewed here.

The city’s Art in Public Places Program began in 1985 and was the first public art program established in San Diego County. It’s tied to the city’s Capital Improvement Program budget and plan, which follows a set of policies and procedures that designated 1% of the overall project value that guides the entire process, from artist selection through to final installation of the work. 

Carlsbad Municipal Code 2.18.110 (Appropriations for arts) allocates 1% of the total cost of certain construction projects to fund permanent public art. The overall construction budget of the Veterans Memorial Park Capital Improvement Program Project No. 4609 allows for $350,000 to be put toward the permanent public art budget.

Designed based on community feedback, the Memorial Plaza at street level will be an accessible space to honor veterans, individually and through small gatherings. In this area, the different military branches will be recognized and opportunities to honor service members will be available, such as naming opportunities on glass wall panels.

The city gathered input on specific Memorial Plaza elements to recognize veterans at the future park through an online survey and focus group conducted in 2022. The feedback gathered on the Veterans Memorial Plaza will be incorporated into the design and construction plans for the park. 

Some of the initial features of the Veterans Memorial Plaza, shown on the sample renderings, include:

• Flagpole and raised platform at center of plaza for educational presentations and veterans events
• Illuminated glass panels with images etched that could reflect different military branches and representation of different roles, genders and time periods
• Nearby parking lot to make the area easily accessible for people of all abilities
• Educational opportunities
• Benches to provide a place to sit and pay respects
• Several locations where commemorative plaques or elements honoring veterans could be integrated
• Ornamental landscaping and trees to provide shade and add natural elements

A national Call for Artists Qualifications was released on Aug. 31, 2023 to recruit potential artists or artist teams to create the permanent public art for the upper plateau of Veterans Memorial Park. The deadline for artist submissions closed on Oct. 24, 2023.

On April 25, 2024, a Public Art Advisory Subcommittee met to review the proposals submitted and select the artists to be interviewed at an upcoming meeting.