Group discusses Bill of Rights monument

The Capitol Preservation Commission on Thursday got a look at two proposals for a Bill of Rights monument on the state Capitol grounds.

An advisory committee was appointed to evaluate the proposals and issue a written report to the panel's Architecture and Grounds Subcommittee.

The first option features 50 black granite columns with laser images of the text of the Bill of Rights, said Holly Kincannon, a designer from Austin, Texas.

The columns would be 9½ feet tall and would form a ring around the Christ Thorn Tree on the east side of the Capitol, Kincannon said.

The images of the Bill of Rights text are expected to determined later.

The second option is a two-part, abstract, limestone sculpture with the Bill of Rights and hand-carved images of the state's landscape and symbols, Kincannon said.

Each piece would be 14 feet tall by 15 feet wide, she said.

Duane Mass is the capitol architect and serves on the Capitol Preservation Commission. He said he preferred option one because it is more of a gardenlike setting.

"Either one will be just lovely," Mass said.

He said the selected design will be used in the fundraising effort to build the monument.

It could be two years before the final product is installed, but that is just a guess, Mass said.

The Bill of Rights Monument Display Act, Senate Bill 14, was passed and signed into law in 2016 calling for the privately funded monument.

Former Rep. Gary Banz, R-Midwest City, is on the committee to raise money for the monument. He was an author of legislation calling for it.

So far, about $35,000 has been raised, he said.

Supporters have said the project will cost about $850,000.

The effort comes after another privately funded monument was removed from the Capitol grounds.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court, in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Oklahoma, ruled in 2015 that a privately funded Ten Commandments monument had to be removed because it violated the Oklahoma Constitution.

The court found that the Ten Commandments monument was religious in nature and an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.