The memorial, designed collaboratively by artist Brian Tolle, landscape architect Gail Wittwer-Laird, and architecture firm 1100 Architect, is landscaped with stones, soil, and native vegetation transported from the western coast of Ireland — with stones from all counties of Ireland.

An authentic Irish cottage from 19th century Carradoogan, in the parish of Attymass, County Mayo, belonged to the Slack family — and was deserted in the 1960s. The Slack family donated the cottage to the memorial in "memory of all the Slack family members of previous generations who emigrated to America and fared well there."