After five years, as memorials on the Station nightclub site weather and fade, above, plans are unveiled yesterday to establish what some characterize as a living memorial, to be called the Station Fire Memorial Park, below. The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

WEST WARWICK — At the site where flame and smoke stole 100 lives five years ago, there may eventually be a sculpture garden, a meandering path, and a 100-string wind harp set into an entry bridge.

And where a night of horror ended in ash and dust at the Station nightclub on Feb. 20, 2003, a stream fed by a “ripple pool” will add a contemplative note to individual commemorative gardens, a courtyard and a timber-framed “meeting house.”

During a fifth-anniversary memorial service attended by several hundred people yesterday, The Station Fire Memorial Foundation unveiled a design for a permanent memorial park at the site. The design, selected after a nationwide search, is the work of two Rhode Islanders, architect Stephen Greenleaf and designer Tom Viall, general manager of RI.gov.

Litigation stemming from the fire stands in the way, but Viall and Greenleaf said that seeing the memorial to fruition “is a matter of time and patience.”

Jessica Garvey, president of The Station Fire Memorial Foundation, said, “I have no doubt, in any way,” that the permanent memorial will be built. She said that the owner, Triton Realty, has agreed to donate the land for the memorial, pending court approval of a $13.5-million settlement that Triton and four other defendants have tentatively agreed to pay.

Governor Carcieri said, “Somehow, we’ve got to see this get done. I know it’s very hard on you. It’s hard on all of us. It has changed so many lives, forever, forever. We will get this thing built, so we can come by and remember. God bless all of you.”

It was cold and raw yesterday, just as it was on that night when a fire roared through the nightclub at 211 Cowesett Ave., not long after the band Great White had taken the stage. Pyrotechnics lit onstage torched flammable acoustic foam on the walls, and in minutes, the building was engulfed in flash-over. Besides the 100 people killed, 200 others were injured; more than 100 others escaped.

Last year, club owners Michael A. and Jeffrey A. Derderian reached plea agreements with the state: Michael Derderian was sentenced to four years of prison on work release, and his brother Jeffrey to community service. Band manager Daniel M. Biechele had earlier received a four-year prison term; he and Michael Derderian will be paroled before serving out their terms. Many victims’ survivors reacted bitterly.

Garvey, sister of fire victim Dina Ann Demaio, said, “We hope the fifth year brings us positive change. “We hope it finally brings us an opportunity for healing,” after what she called “four years of tragedy and bitterness.”

Garvey said the foundation decided it was time to move forward and choose a design, and that “one design stood out above all others.” The board selected the one submitted by Greenleaf and Viall, she said, because it would create “a living memorial” to honor the victims and survivors, as well as first-responders and caregivers. It will also offer space for educational displays and works by local artists and artisans.

Jessica Garvey, right, president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, led yesterday’s memorial service. With her is her aunt, Mary Belanger. The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

Greenleaf and Viall, both native Rhode Islanders, began their work last April when the search committee announced its guidelines.

Greenleaf said, “We are very honored” to have had their work chosen. He said it was his and Viall’s concern from the start “that this site be developed as a place that means something to all of Rhode Island, as we believe this event in one way or another touched all of us.”

Viall said that, rather than design a “tower” or other traditional marker, “We want to look ahead. What about the fifteenth anniversary?” What about the fiftieth?” Years from now, said Viall, when fire survivors, and family and friends of the victims have passed on, The Station fire could become “the subject of high school papers or a college thesis or a Web page on Wikipedia.”

That is why, he said, they strived for a contemplative, natural landscape that will literally live on in memory.

The designers identified an “Aeolian harp” bridge as the signature feature in the park. The 100 strings will stretch vertically along the sides of the bridge.

Viall explained, “As the wind passes through the bridge, the harmonic vibrations of each string will resonate, creating a musical soundtrack for the site, reminding us how music was one of the main forces that originally brought people to this very spot.”

Garvey called the project “ambitious,” and noted that it will require “significant funds.”

The memorial foundation has raised $100,000 thus far, she said. “While we have already been contacted by many organizations offering to donate materials and labor, we know that there is a lot of work ahead of us. That being said, we have no doubt that Rhode Island is going to be very generous when it comes to seeing this project completed.”

“We all deserve a place to heal,” Garvey said. “We feel that this design offers that place for all of Rhode Island and we look forward to seeing it come to life.”

Many who attended the service yesterday snapped pictures of the design with their cell-phone cameras, and nodded approvingly.

“The design is beautiful. It’s nice to know we’ll have something like that to come to. It’s really, really beautiful,” said Tracy Ryan, of West Warwick, whose friend Bonnie L. Hamelin died in the fire. Ryan said she visits the site at least once a year on October 13th — Hamelin’s birthday.

Walter Castle Jr. called the design “totally amazing. It’s going to be a total serene space.”

Castle said his lungs are permanently damaged, “and I lost all my lifelong friends that night. I’m glad there will be a place to come to remember the good times and the bad times. Because you know, in life there are bad times as well as the good times.”

During the ceremony, family and friends clung to one another as the names of the 100 victims were read.

Rachel Henault, daughter of Jude Henault, told those people gathered on the cracked tarmac that she “grew up in an instant” at age 12, after her mother went to the nightclub and never returned.

She said, “I look at my mom’s pictures every day. I know she would never leave me. She’s just with me in a different way now.” She said her mother’s soul lives on “in the wind blowing against the windows” and “the stars watching us from above.”

For more about the Station Fire Memorial Fund, visit the Web site www.stationfirememorial.org.

kziner@projo.com