Revised Design for 9/11 Memorial Saves Many Features and Lowers Cost

NY Times ^ | June 21, 2006 | DAVID W. DUNLAP and CHARLES V. BAGLI

[neverdem]

The names of the dead would be raised to the plaza from the pool level below, as many relatives have demanded. But thundering waterfalls would still cascade into those pools, at the bottom of two enormous voids marking the place where the twin towers stood.

The reconceived World Trade Center memorial and museum, unveiled yesterday after weeks of anxious anticipation, tries to solve security problems, placate disaffected family members and, most of all, reduce the project cost from an estimated $672 million. A budget target of $500 million was set last month by Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The new $510 million plan, one of several developed by a construction executive, Frank J. Sciame, at the request of the governor and the mayor, would keep significant features of the original design, by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, which was chosen in 2004 after a worldwide juried competition.

The revised design would fundamentally alter the experience, however. Rather than journeying down a long ramp into underground galleries to contemplate the inscribed names, then coming back up to enter a separate museum, a visitor would walk around the plaza before entering an orientation center leading to a smaller museum, most of it near bedrock.

This option was one of five that Mr. Sciame presented on Thursday to the governor and the mayor.

Mr. Pataki said yesterday that the one they chose preserves the voids, the waterfalls, the pools, the names around the pools and an underground passage to the museum.

"To me, these were all very important elements of the Michael Arad design," the governor said.

But Mr. Arad said the elimination of almost all of the galleries around the pools was among the more "painful cuts" he was being asked to make and a significant departure from...

[neverdem]

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
The reconceived World Trade Center memorial and museum was unveiled today after weeks of anxious anticipation.

Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
At the plaza level, visitors would find the names of all 2,979 victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, inscribed around the two voids.

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
The sound of the waterfalls — about 700 feet long around each void — would help visitors find isolation from the bustle of city life.

Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
Visitors to the museum would descend to a large hall 70 feet below the street, where they could see large artifacts like the last column that was standing after the recovery operation ended, above.

Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
A 50- to 100-foot section of the slurry wall that formed the trade center foundation will also be on display. For more renderings, visit renewnyc.org.

[A CA Guy]

The libs complain about Iraq, yet they have a new government, a new Constitution, and are working at getting their country back at a fast pace.

Meanwhile the complaining libs who control most of NY can't get the 9-11 site construction started yet.

I am so not impressed.

[Darteaus94025]

By the time the DummycRATS are done, we'll be lucky if there's any memorial at all on the site.

[Darteaus94025]

By the time the DummycRATS are done, we'll be lucky if there's any memorial at all on the site.

[A CA Guy]

IMO, there should only have been a modest tiny memorial in the bottom of what ever big building gets built up again.
We carry the loss of these people in our hearts, why do we need some large phisical memorial like a church?

[Dallas59]

By the time the Rats get through with it....

[newzjunkey]

It's ugly in that 1960's concrete modernism sense. Yuck.

Any takes on how long before it turns into a homeless magnet as well?

[MinorityRepublican]

Sorry but this memorial design is unacceptable. We do not need to mourn constantly by doing something like this. Let us rebuild the twin towers and make it one story higher like Donald Trump proposed.

[newzjunkey]

Trump's proposal:

[Crazieman]

I want the Trump proposal too.

Has rebuilding the towers ever been polled, or are they too afraid to?

[newzjunkey]

The LMDC is accepting pubic comments on the Draft Recommendations outlined in the Sciame Report, through June 27, 2006.

You can comment via this form

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Trump's idea, definitely. It shows people what was actually destroyed that needed to be rebuilt, and the memorials at the original footprints don't try to hide what happened, unlike that awful Freedom Tower design.

[EQAndyBuzz]

That is the best one yet.

[livius]

LOL! But sadly, that's probably exactly what it will become. Oh, you forgot to add the "It's George Bush's Fault Homeless Encampment."

[Freeport]

You have my vote!

[Condor51]

Nice pics. But I believe something is missing?!?

I can't find the 20' tall bronze statue of the "Jersey Girls"??

(Also, did all the appropriate parties submit the plans to them for their approval? If not, there'll be hell to pay.