Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is not the biggest job that we have ever worked on but it is one that is close to our hearts.
The Tomb sits quietly at the foot of the National War Memorial in Wellington. The black granite base slides into the steps climbing past it. Inset white marble crosses speak of stars and of fields of crosses in foreign lands. On top a bronze mantle, a greatcoat draped over a body, sits tightly into the granite sides.
Like its occupant, the returning warrior, it is the essence of New Zealand. It has a job to do and it does it without fuss or flourish but, still, always, with huge pride.
This is the strength of the tomb. It was also the challenge. The Unknown Warrior belongs to all New Zealanders and, as we found out when the first design was mooted, New Zealanders can fight ferociously and loudly if something is not right. Lobbying and a judicial review put the job back a year. Gaining resource consent for the new design also took time. The opening was set for November 2004 and construction did not start until July 2004.
On 11th November 2004, Armistice Day, the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest, finally, in his tomb. As his casket slowly and ceremoniously made its way through the City, there was silence; a silence that lingered. At the ceremony the speeches, the laments, the poems and prayers echoed over a silent crowd. Even the birds were stilled.
We could not have asked for a better response to the completion of the Unknown Warrior Project than that silence.