November 19, 2003

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

At the Winter Garden in downtown Manhattan, just steps from where the Twin Towers once stood, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation today announced the eight finalists for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition.

The finalists’ designs which include renderings, models, and videos illustrating possible memorials for the events of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993, will be on display at the Winter Garden until the winner is chosen, ostensibly before the end of the year.

The final schemes were chosen from a field of 5,201 entries from 63 countries and 49 states, and judged by a jury that includes designers, politicians, and victims’ family members.

“Never before has a memorial competition encouraged such an outpouring of humanity,” said John C. Whitehead, Chairman of the LMDC, at the event. “Each design uses simple yet profound elements to achieve a place to contemplate and seek our own peace with the tragic events of September 11.”

The designs, as Andrew Winters, LMDC Vice President and Director of Planning, Design and Development, points out, are more about “subtlety” and “nuances” than about size or verticality. As jury member Vartan Gregorian (president of the Carnegie Corporation) put it, the finalists designs chose “memorialization over their own grandeur.”

Finalists are predominantly young (under 30) and few have achieved wide renown in design and architecture. Keeping the jury review process anonymous helped to ensure that big names didn’t dominate, Whitehead pointed out.

A few designs appear to have even ignored some of the contest rules. For example, “Lower Waters,” by Bradley Campbell and Matthias Neumann, removes the northern building prescribed in the LMDC’s memorial outline while “Reflecting Absence,” by Michael Arad calls for the removal of memorial buildings to the north and the north east.

Still all designs are subject to change. “It’s a good starting point,” said AIA New York Chapter Executive Director Rick Bell. “It’s not a be all end all.”

The finalists are:

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

Sam Lubell