World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition

World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
Company type	Design competition
Industry	Architecture, Memorial design
Founded	2003-04-28
Founder	Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
Fate	Completed, winning design selected
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Area served	Worldwide

The World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was a global design contest launched by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) following criteria set by architect Daniel Libeskind to create a memorial at the World Trade Center site—which later became the National September 11 Memorial & Museum—in New York City. The competition commenced on April 28, 2003, and the victorious entry—Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad and Peter Walker—was revealed on January 14, 2004. Drawing 5,201 proposals from 63 countries and 49 U.S. states among 13,683 registrants worldwide, it stands as the largest design competition ever held.

History

On March 5, 2002, Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the LMDC unveiled plans for a temporary memorial to honor victims of both the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

By January 2, 2003, public forums were arranged by LMDC and the Port Authority to discuss plans for a permanent memorial at the World Trade Center site.

The Selection Jury was established on April 10, with competition rules published and registration opened on April 28. LMDC responded to participant inquiries through May 18, posting answers online until the competition’s conclusion. Registration ended May 29; by mid-May, entries had arrived from all 50 U.S. states and over 70 countries, culminating in a total of 13,683 registrants from 94 nations by May 30.

Submissions were accepted between June 9 and June 30. On July 17, LMDC announced receiving 5,201 entries from individuals representing 49 states and 63 countries. The eight finalists’ designs were displayed publicly at the Winter Garden on November 19.

On January 6, 2004, the jury selected Arad and Walker’s Reflecting Absence as the winning design; it was unveiled to the public on January 14.

By February 19, all submissions were accessible online through LMDC’s website. An Advisory Committee was formed on April 8 to incorporate competition criteria into the final memorial design, which had undergone revisions since January. On April 13, associate architect Davis Brody Bond was appointed to collaborate with Arad and Walker in refining the project.

The searchable digital archive of all entries continues to be available under the stewardship of the Memorial and Museum.[1]

Guidelines

The competition mandated five essential "program elements":

Commemorate every victim of both the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 attacks
Establish a tranquil environment for visitors seeking reflection
Designate a dedicated area for families and close ones of victims
Provide a separate accessible space serving as a final resting place for unidentified remains from the World Trade Center site
Visually preserve the footprints of the original Twin Towers

Participants were also expected to adhere to these "guiding principles":

Embody the mission statement’s intent and ethos
Express the magnitude of personal and physical loss
Recognize those engaged in rescue efforts, recovery operations, and healing processes
Honor and enhance the sacred nature of both site and memorial space
Foster reflection and contemplation
Capture the historical importance and worldwide impact of September 11, 2001
Produce an original, compelling symbol with lasting significance
Motivate engagement to deepen understanding of both attacks’ events and consequences
Allow for future adaptation over time

Initial screening of submissions was conducted by LMDC staff to verify adherence to these requirements prior to jury review. Final eligibility decisions rested with LMDC.

Selection Jury

In collaboration with municipal and state officials, the LMDC formed a jury predominantly consisting of architects and artists, supplemented by other specialists:

Susan K. Freedman, President of the Public Art Fund
Vartan Gregorian, PhD, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
Patricia Harris, Deputy Mayor for Administration, City of New York
Maya Lin, artist and architect renowned for winning the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design competition
Michael McKeon, Director of Communications for Governor Pataki and liaison on September 11 matters
Julie Menin, Founder and President of Wall Street Rising
Enrique Norten, architect
Martin Puryear, artist
Nancy Rosen, public artist
Lowery Stokes Sims, PhD, Executive Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem
Michael Van Valkenburgh, architect
James E. Young, PhD, Chair of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Honorary Member:

David Rockefeller, noted philanthropist

Finalists

The panel chose eight finalists:

Votives in Suspension by Norman Lee and Michael Lewis
Suspending Memory by Joseph Karadin and Hsin-Yi Wu
Lower Waters by Bradley Campbell and Matthias Neumann
Garden of Lights by Pierre David, Sean Corriel, and Jessica Kmetovic
Passages of Light : Memorial Cloud by Gisela Baurmann, Sawad Brooks, and Jonas Coersmeier
Inversion of Light by Toshio Sasaki
Dual Memory by Brian Strawn and Karla Sierralta
Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad and Peter Walker

Reflecting Absence

The design titled Reflecting Absence, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, incorporates a grove of trees interrupted by two expansive voids containing recessed pools that outline the footprints of the former Twin Towers. The deciduous swamp white oaks are systematically positioned in rows that form clusters, clearings, and groves. This memorial park is situated at street level above the Memorial Museum. The location itself is a bathtub, originally excavated for the World Trade Center's construction; the displaced soil was utilized to develop adjacent Battery Park City.

Names of those lost in the attacks—including victims at the Pentagon, aboard American Airlines Flight 77, United Airlines Flight 93, as well as casualties from the 1993 bombing—are etched onto parapets encircling the waterfalls. These names are arranged according to "meaningful adjacencies" reflecting relationships among the victims.

Within the Museum is a preserved segment of the original slurry wall, which was engineered to retain the Hudson River. However, this preserved portion represents less than half of what Daniel Libeskind originally proposed.

Bibliography

Greenspan, Elizabeth (2003). "Spontaneous Memorials, Museums, and Public History: Memorialization of September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon." Public Historian, 25(2): 129–132.
Low, Setha M. (2004). "The Memorialization of September 11: Dominant and local discourses on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site." American Ethnologist, 31(3): 326–339.
Mitchell, K. (2003). "Monuments, memorials, and the politics of memory." Urban Geography, 24(5): 442–459.
Rybczynski, Witold (2004). "Less is Less: Was minimalism the proper design response to commemorate September 11?" Landscape Architecture, 94(3): 20–23.
Sturken, Marita (2004). "The aesthetics of absence: Rebuilding Ground Zero." American Ethnologist, 31(3): 311–325.
Levine, Lester (2016). "911 Memorial Visions: Innovative Concepts from the 2003 World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition."

External links