King Charles and Queen Camilla View Design for National Memorial Honoring Queen Elizabeth on Monarch’s 100th Birthday

“Today is an exciting day,” Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee member Alex Holmes tells PEOPLE

King Charles kicked off what would have been his mother Queen Elizabeth‘s 100th birthday by viewing plans for a memorial in her honor.

On the morning of Tuesday, April 21, King Charles, his wife Queen Camilla and other members of the royal family arrived at the British Museum to view the design recommendations for the planned Queen Elizabeth Memorial in London.

Also in attendance was the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as members of the memorial’s committee, including the memorial’s designer Lord Norman Foster. Together, they viewed a scale model of the planned memorial, as well as artworks and a short film featuring imagery of the designs.

The royals also met three artists producing work for the site: Martin Jennings, Yinka Shonibare and Karen Newman. The Queen Elizabeth Memorial is set to be erected at St. James’ Park in London, due to be completed in 2028.

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Alex Holmes, member of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, tells PEOPLE, “Today is an exciting day. The culmination of two years of work.” The endeavor has seen him and others including chairman of the committee, Lord Janvrin, the late monarch’s former private secretary, seek opinions from around the U.K. as they hone the ideas for the memorial honoring the iconic sovereign.

“We’ve spent a long time speaking not just to those who knew the Queen well but community organizations across the U.K.,” he adds. “The memorial park in St. James’s Park is going to be a really beautiful place that brings people together in the same way that the Queen did. She had that ability to bring people together whether it was intergenerational or from different faiths or communities.”

The gardens will reflect the Commonwealth and feature a four nations garden representing the four nations of the U.K. 

“It will really remind people of our longest-serving monarch,” says Holmes.

There is also set to be a children’s trail, with a new Queen Elizabeth Digital Memorial and U.K.-wide charity called The Queen Elizabeth Trust also launched in her honor, and the committee member adds that he learned much about the iconic monarch along the way.

“It was amazing to hear first hand from Lord Janvrin some of the stories. When we were in the bridge in the park and talking about how it was going to be, he would point out a window back at the palace and how she would often stand in that window looking across the bridge,” he says. Janvrin was Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary from 1999 to 2007 and is chair of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee.

“The King was really pleased. I had a conversation with him in the line up about the importance of bringing young people and community into this. That has always meant something to him as well as his mother, who had a unique ability to bring communities and generations together,” he says, sharing that there were a large number of young people at the event.

“He had a big smile,” adds Holmes, who mentioned, “He had lots of questions about the process and how we consulted stakeholders and, in many ways, co-created some of the ideas. He’s always shown interest and we’ve kept him up to date and involved in lots of our thinking — which seems to have worked out because he was pleased today.”

Sculptor Martin Jennings designed the statues of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and showed the King his prototype models of the full-sized versions that will stand in the park during the event.

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Jennings confessed to a “degree of anxiety” at showing it to the King and Queen, telling PEOPLE, “Although they’re members of the royal family on the one hand, they’re having to consider how this will work for the state. But on the other hand, these are also members of their own family that are being memorialized here.”

“You’re needing to respond to both aspects. Is it the human person they remember so well and does it say about sovereignty and the monarchy what they believe needs to be said,” the sculptor says. 

Jennings says the King was interested in the “idea” of what the statues represented. 

“Should she be in garter robes? Should we be representing her as the young figure at the beginning of her reign, which we are. The idea is that we’re imbuing the memorial with almost the opposite of looking at the past. By representing them as young figures you’re representing the optimism, the hope, the aspiration of the beginning of her reign,” says Jennings. “When she was a new monarch after the austerity of the war years when not only people in this country but all over the world felt this upsurge and optimism and so this is what we’re trying to represent.”

On her eldest son and successor’s reaction, the artist adds that King Charles “seemed pleased. He was charming and it was a warm response.”

He explained how the figure of the late Queen will face out towards The Mall, “her head turned towards Buckingham Palace to catch the evening sun.”

The royal family has a slate of events planned for April 21, Queen Elizabeth’s centenary.

While King Charles and Queen Camilla were at the British Museum, Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, officially opened another public memorial to the late monarch: the Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park, London.

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And later in the evening, the royals will host a special reception at Buckingham Palace marking Queen Elizabeth’s 100th birthday. The event will be attended by senior members of the family, including Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Edward and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.

After the 100th birthday celebrations are over, King Charles and Queen Camilla will then head to the United States on April 27 for a series of events in Washington, D.C., New York City and Virginia. The trip is in honor of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence from the United Kingdom.

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s birth with a special edition of PEOPLE featuring stories about her life and legacy, on sale now.

Via: People