LMDC President Kevin Rampe annouces Memorial Center Advisory Committee

Beneath the vaulted, chandeliered ceiling of St. Paul's Chapel -- the oldest public building in continuous use on the island of Manhattan -- the formation of a new committee was announced yesterday, a team of two dozen men and women that will assist in memorializing the tragic events of the September 11^th and 1993 bombings at the World Trade Center.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) yesterday announced the establishment of a Memorial Center Advisory Committee, which will provide suggestions regarding the content, programming, and guidelines for the Memorial Center at the future World Trade Center site. The 24-member committee will issue recommendations -- submitted to the public for review and comment -- related to the curatorial mission and possible program elements of the Memorial Center.

Focusing on the events of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001, the Memorial Center will honor those who died and "recognize the countless acts of heroism that emerged from the tragedy," according to an LMDC press release. The advisory committee -- comprised of historians, preservationists, curators, victims' family members, residents, survivors, and first responders (For a full list of committee members, click here) -- will produce suggestions about the center including its programming, which will feature, among other elements, the display of artifacts from the WTC site.

The announcement was made at St. Paul's Chapel

After the attack on September 11, hundreds of volunteers from around the country provided support at the chapel -- located on Broadway between Vesey Street and Fulton Street -- for recovery workers at the WTC site, offering counseling, making beds, and serving meals.

Thanking committee members for their time, Rampe singled out some of the members who attended the event, including Virginia Bauer, a member of the LMDC Families Advisory Council; Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of public information, NYPD; Sharon Dunn, senior assistant for the arts, Department of Education; and Tom Eccles, director and curator, Public Art Fund.

John Whitehead, chairman of the LMDC, next addressed the press. Noting that it is "always moving to be back in this church," Whitehead said that the creation of a memorial "has been the highest priority of the LMDC since we began this work."

The participation of the committee in the Memorial Center, Whitehead said, "represents an important example of the LMDC involving the public in the rebuilding process."

Some members of the committee spoke this morning as well, including Virginia Bauer, whose husband died in Tower 1 on September 11.

Bauer said that she was "honored and privileged" to serve on the committee. She was confident, she said, that "our generation will never forget what happened in 1993 and 2001."