Posted on 09/11/2011 5:10:38 AM PDT by Liz
Nearly six years ago, in November 2003, a design called 'Reflecting Absence,' conceived by NYC Housing Authority architect, Michael Arad, was selected as one of the finalists for the World Trade Center Memorial. Arad's poignant design featured two pools in the footprints of the destroyed WTC's towers, each an acre in size, with waterfalls cascading down their sides, representing endless tears shed for the victims. In January 2004, the design, now-revised with landscape designer Peter Walker's eastern white pine trees, was chosen as the winning design slated to open on September 11, 2011, for the tenth anniversary.
WIKI Michael Arad, an Israeli American, was selected from 5,201 competitors as the winning designer of the World Trade Center Memorial with "Reflecting Absence" - a pair of pools set 30 feet deep in the "footprints" of the downed towers, with cascading waterfalls surrounded by the names of the dead, areas at bedrock level where the public can mourn and family members of the victims can grieve in private, a space for 9/11 relics and a "living park" at ground level meant to symbolize life and rebirth.
Unidentified human remains recovered from the World Trade Center site would be interred at the bottom of the north tower footprint at the site's deepest point, 70 feet underground. At street level, with the help of landscape architect Peter Walker, Arad proposed a cobblestone plaza with moss and grass and planted with eastern white pine trees.
"This design proposes a space that resonates with the feelings of loss and absence that were generated by the death and destruction at the World Trade Center," Arad said in the statement.
Initially criticized for the starkness of the design and failure to differentiate the civilian victims from those who died in the line of duty, Arad presented a revised version in conjunction with landscape designer Peter Walker. The high cost of the project, originally estimated at $1 billion, also sparked controversy.
Arad is now a partner at Handel Architects.
I believe, if they could communicate with us, the murdered souls would tell us to re-build the towers and put people to work.
I believe too, that they are sick of our dawdling over the ones that murdered them.
They may not have known what happened the day they were murdered, but somewhere in eternity I believe they got the information.
If it was you ... wouldn't YOU be screaming at us from eternity, "Stop foolin' around and GET those bastards ... look what's happened to my wife/son/daughter, etc .... "
Or would you be sending peaceful flowing cascades of kisses ...
I have such mixed feelings about these. I understand the desire to preserve the buildings footprints, especially by the family members. And the fountains are poignant, and well done.
But in some way they seem to be an admission of defeat. 2 giant holes in the ground. Who will ever want to work in the buildings overlooking these?
You know, at first I liked this design - the reverence and solemnity it evokes.
But upon refelction (not really meant as a pun), I find them more & more depressing. They’re water-filled, drowning holes in the ground.
They kind of try to “cheer-up” the area with trees and greenery. Couldn’t they come up with a more positive, reverent yet uplifting design?
Yep - a peaceful, restful place more designed to make folks forget the horror of the day is an insult to those who died. Part of a "progressive" plan to make us think all is well while we go to Hell in a handbasket being "Made in America".
Sickening, weak tripe when we should be taking a plan from Obama's playbook and "get in their faces". Oh, wait, that tactic is reserved for those who love the Nation, not for its enemies...
“Couldn’t they come up with a more positive, reverent yet uplifting design?”
If the falls could be made to flow in the opposite direction, I’d think it was the coolest thing since Apollo 11.
THAT, dear friends should be a motivating factor in our thinking ... or I don't want you in my foxhole.
do you know the thread for the artwork. i would like to see it.
I logged into my Yahoo account and a graphic flashed on the screen saying We pause to remember.
And then will you guarantee the owner of the building 100% occupancy?
While we are at it the USS Arizona could easily be dug up and used as a battleship and Gettysburg is still productive farmland.
It’s now a memorial. Getting hot about it isnt going to make anyone change their mind.
That view looking up is better than looking into a hole.
The sentimental bs, Bloomie and the never ending news "tributes" are getting on my nerves.
But, we must stop and think, there are 3,000 families who will never see their loved ones again. No grave-site to visit, no Daddy or Mommy ever coming home from work again. We must preserve a place for them to come to grieve. This memorial was well done and peaceful.
As for the PC wars, we should have kicked their asses and gotten out. Now it's just a big f-ed up mess with thousands of our fine young men dead or maimed.
Political Correctness is going to be our demise.
America look at (once) Great Britain, that's our future.
You’ve received mixed responses to your post. I, for one, agree with you. This is not the time to lie down and cry...
it’s time to kick ass and take names. Turn these terrorist controlled countries into green glass and build a resort on
shores of Lake Afghanistan.
Had I designed it.
An atrium memorial with a piece of the old grid superstructure in the middle and something on the top of the building that looked similar to this..n^nn. The finger.
Wakes, funerals, cards, flowers, cemetery's ... all for the living.
Souls are in eternity, either Heaven or Hell and ALL scream (Let he that hath ears to hear, listen ... ) ... Don't come here (Hell), I await your arrival (Heaven).
I believe if we are to honor those that were murdered, they would want their lives back in the form of the work they did while alive.
How many kids follow their father's/mother's paths as an honor to them? (Military, Police, Firefighter, etc.).
If indeed we want to call these souls heroes or patriots, (Though I don't think any of them would think that of themselves, except Ft. 73) let it be as ordinary people going to work.
THAT'S how they try to jerk our heart strings .. so let's use that sentiment to act/re-act ... re-build the towers, let Trump have the job, and proper advertising will refill them.
Isn't that rendering the ugly design by Libeskind that was replaced by the current design below?
I forgot how ugly it was; wasn't it supposed to have power generating windmills or something in the top portion?
I think he's still part of the rebuilding committee. The other building they're putting up with the slanted roof is cool looking.
I don't know who designed it but it is good looking and hopefully rent-able.
I'm ambivalent on the memorial; after all, they rebuilt the Pentagon like it was before and quickly. I though they should have rebuilt the old twin towers with modern improvements regarding safety but would people want to work there?
Finally, there are still a lot of families that don't have any remains to bury, or cremate so this becomes kind of a grave to their memories.
Whoever said the memorial looks better from below I think is correct. Is the image below real or a rendering?
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