In 1990, Professor Neiman was a recipient of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Design Award, "for recognition of outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a theoretical endeavor, to promote architecture as a reflective discipline."

The sponsors for the The May 4th Memorial Competition, Kent State University required an apolitical approach to creating a memorial for the events of May 4, 1970. The designer responded to this absurd request with an abstracted, “black humor” strategy to the solution. The Memorial occupies the hillside in a precarious and tentative manner. The site faces the Commons where the Kent State riots began. The Memorial acts as a viewing platform for the riotous events, or as a metaphorical rock concert stage with its lead players poised for action. Projected in front of the stage are five "totemic characters", four of which represent the murdered students. A fifth character, located at center "stage level", is for the student who was shot and paralyzed for life. It is wheelchair accessible. Elongated pipes projecting from the backdrop gallery wall are aimed at the backs of each of the characters. The entire composition is a machine which evokes images of military hardware, such as machine guns, bayonets, and tanks. The platform and the peripherally located vertical pipes become a microcosm of the Commons. Surrounding spectators view an almost comic scene of the soldiers with bayonets positioned on youths throwing flowers, and returning smoking tear gas canisters.

The proposed memorial attempts to recreate the events of May 4th according to the absurdly stated apolitical desires of the competition sponsors. Does this memorial favor the students or the soldiers? Were the victims of the Kent State tragedy innocent bystanders walking to class or a group of radical thugs bent on bringing down the nation? In either case, death could have chosen anyone. The five characters act as places where anyone can for a moment, view and remember, through a clear mask/shield, the senseless events of May 4th 1970. The viewer can also become one of the soldiers taking aim.