It strikes me strangest that this memorial, which the architects SWEAR is not anything at all like an islamic crescent, will resemble exactly that when seen from above: in a plane, exactly as the Heroes of Flight 93 would have seen it as they fought for their lives, and the lives of strangers on the ground.
Of course it won't resemble that at all when seen from the ground, so I wonder how the presentation was made to the families who voted for the design? I've read a few articles from family members who supported this design now, and their word counts more than mine, as none of my loved ones were murdered by islamic terrorists. I hope they aren't being tricked (and that is the nicest word I could come up with).
At this point I feel they, the heroes who died and their surviving family members, deserve better than a memorial that evokes so much suspicion, confusion, and outrage.
Paul Murdoch defends the design.
"A crescent is part of architectural vocabulary. It's a generic form used in design," said Paul Murdoch, one of the winning architects. "We don't see any one group having ownership of it."
"Crescent of Embrace" features an arc of maple trees that will turn red each fall.
Murdoch believes it's unfortunate that the design is being interpreted that way.
"You can call it all kinds of things. We can call it an arc. We can call it a circle. We can call it the edge of the bowl. The label doesn't matter to us in terms of intent.
"We have no objection to calling it something else."
Murdoch did say they have no intentions of changing the design.
The reason the circle of trees is not completed, he said, is because it was severed by the path of Flight 93. From that opening, visitors will be able to gaze down on what has been called the "Sacred Ground," where some of the remains of the passengers and crew still rest.
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Paul Murdoch's firm is committed to its involvement in creating sustainable design. Sustainable design, as defined by Wikipedia, is "the art of designing physical objects to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability."
Paul Murdoch...
A primary task of this generation is to create new patterns of development that sustain human habitation on this planet. Towards this end, the principles adopted for our practice are intended to ensure that each project contributes to an overall goal of environmental responsibility while striving for design excellence. As architects, we are uniquely qualified to help formulate and translate policy into tangible form; mitigating pressures of urbanity with the need to heal the natural environment. Each design solution is seen as a contribution to the human condition; as it exists today and evolves into future generations.
Our goal is to define and study problems both in terms of clients’ direct needs and relative to long term effects on natural and man made surroundings. More than problem solving however, we aspire to emotionally affect and uplift our lives through poetry and beauty.
It is through these transcendent qualities that we optimistically strive for ways to enrich life and fulfill our original purpose for engaging in the practice of architecture.
Amen. It's a memorial to the god damned Muslim terrorists. A red Crescent is not a memorial to the lost, it is a surrender to the damnable vermin who killed them.
It's a travesty in the extreme.