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The WTC Memorial will offer visitors a powerful experience, both above and below ground
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Expanding on the conceptual renderings unveiled last year, the detailed designs of the 9/11 memorial, "Reflecting Absence," were unveiled Thursday. The overall design calls for three levels descending below ground, offering access to the original foundation of the twin towers, and creates a powerful experience intended to remove visitors, physically and emotionally, from the city and everyday life.
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| A bird's eye view of "Reflecting Absence" from the plaza level |
"We unveiled today what I believe had to be the centerpiece of everything we do at Ground Zero," Gov. George Pataki said at the press conference held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. "The memorial will help tell the story of September 11th and the lives we lost, so that future generations will understand the enormity of what happened here."
Since the jury selection of "Reflecting Absence" by Michael Arad and Peter Walker last January, the design team, which also includes Max Bond and members of these principle architects' firms, embarked on the schematic design process to develop the diverse elements of the memorial.
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| An illustration of the Memorial Plaza through the seasons |
"Reflecting Absence," which was chosen because it was deemed to best capture the feelings of loss and absence that were generated by the death and destruction at the World Trade Center, features a landscaped one-and-a-half-acre clearing on the plaza level filled with a canopy composed of hundreds of oak trees. As visitors move forward, they will see two massive voids aligned with the footprints where the twin towers once stood. At the bottom of the voids will be rings of cascading water feeding into illuminated reflecting pools.
"The design has a simple eloquence that was appropriate for those that died," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "As a city, as a nation, and as a global community, we really need to be able to make these physical, personal, and spiritual connections and that need is most intense for victims' family members and their friends."
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| Visitors will walk down a descending path |
Descending from the ground level, visitors will be able to read the names of the victims from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, inscribed around each pool. Between the two pools, the Memorial Hall will offer a vast open space for visitors to sit and reflect and will also provide an area in which events can be held.
Descending further still, to the bedrock, visitors will be able to touch the 70-foot slurry wall that held back the Hudson River during the attacks. The box beam columns that supported the towers will also be exposed. Here, at the bottom-most level of the site, visitors will also find a room set aside for contemplation, and, at its center, a mausoleum for the unidentified remains gathered in the aftermath of the attacks. This room is intended to serve as a space for people to pay respect to the victims in the absence of a grave. A private room, too, will be at bedrock level -- for victims' families to gather and share their memories. Finally, the end of a visit to the memorial will be marked by an ascent back to ground level.
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| Memorial Hall, a vast open space below the plaza level |
"The design strives to make visible what is absent," Arad said. "The primary responsibility we have is to those we lost that day."
Fundraising for the memorial, as well as the planned cultural centers, will be accomplished by a group known as the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Appointed earlier this month, the diverse group, which includes corporate executives, victims' family members, civic leaders, and philanthropists, will work together, beginning in the spring, to raise about $500 million and will later oversee the construction processes. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton also have accepted invitations to serve as honorary board members for the foundation.
To view an animation of "Reflecting Absence," click here.
Related Links:
LMDC Releases New Image of Reflecting Absence
Memorial Design
WTC Memorial Foundation Members Selected
"Reflecting Absence" Refined
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