Skywalk Memorial Plaza

The Skywalk Memorial Plaza in Hospital Hill Park honors the 114 people killed and more than 200 injured in the 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse — the deadliest single structural disaster in Kansas City’s modern history until the scale of later national catastrophes. Dedicated in 2015, thirty-four years after the collapse, its centerpiece is a 24-foot sculpture, “Sending Love,” by Kansas City artist Rita Blitt. It stands across from the hotel where the disaster happened.¹²

The memorial

The plaza sits in Hospital Hill Park at 22nd Street and Gillham Road — across from the building (then the Hyatt Regency, later the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center) where two suspended walkways fell into a crowded tea dance on July 17, 1981.¹ Dedication was November 12, 2015 (per KC Parks and contemporaneous dedication coverage; re-confirm on parks page when fetchable).²

“Sending Love” is a 24-foot work by Rita Blitt, a contemporary portrayal of a dancing couple — an evocation of the tea dance underway when the walkways fell — rather than a literal depiction of the disaster.² The names of the 114 people killed are inscribed on the memorial; dedication programming also honored first responders and families.² Blitt had a personal connection: her fifth-grade art teacher was among the injured.²

Kansas City metal fabricator Zahner donated in-kind engineering and fabrication services for the memorial construction.² Then-mayor Sly James and officials attended the dedication; victims’ names were read.²

Why it took 34 years

The long gap between the disaster and its memorial was itself a civic story. In a July 2014 KCUR piece — a year before dedication — foundation board members explained delays from years of litigation, institutional reluctance among the hotel, Crown Center, and Hallmark to fund a memorial that might read as an admission of wrongdoing, and fundraising shortfalls (board member Al Ortega cited the foundation having raised about $383,000 of a construction threshold, with roughly $163,000 still needed).¹

The Skywalk Memorial Foundation, organized from about 2006, was headed by attorney Brent Wright, who was sixteen when his mother and stepfather were killed in the collapse.¹ Ortega, a former KCPD officer who had been dispatched to the scene, served on the board from inception and hoped for groundbreaking before the 34th anniversary in 2015 — which the November dedication met.¹

Context

The collapse killed 114 and injured more than 200 (KCUR 2014); other vault and engineering accounts use 216 injured — both figures appear in the literature; prefer the collapse page’s reconciled count when citing injury totals.¹ The disaster reshaped civil-engineering practice and professional responsibility narratives; Zahner’s dedication essay quotes structural engineer Jack Gillum on teaching failure as learning.² For the collapse itself, see hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse.

Sources

Elle Moxley, “Why, 33 Years Later, We Still Don’t Have A Memorial For The Skywalk Disaster,” KCUR, July 17, 2014 (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: proposed Hospital Hill Park site (22nd & Gillham); Skywalk Memorial Foundation ~2006; Brent Wright leadership and family loss; litigation and Hallmark/Crown Center/hotel reluctance; ~$382,824 raised of construction goal; 114 dead, more than 200 injured. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
A. Zahner Company — “Photographs from the Hyatt Skywalk Memorial Dedication.” (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: Rita Blitt “Sending Love”; 24-foot sculpture; names of 114; Zahner in-kind fabrication; personal connection of Blitt’s teacher; dedication speeches and mayor Sly James; tribute to first responders and families. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸