December 1, 2004

New York leaders and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation today announced the formation of the Board of Directors for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, a non-profit corporation that will construct, own, and operate the WTC Memorial and raise money for its construction.

The board will meet first in January and begin its fund raising campaign this spring. The foundation will also raise money for the Memorial Center, an interpretive museum underneath the Memorial.

“The most important thing we have to do here is honor those who lost their lives and those that came to help,” said Governor Pataki, who was on hand.

The foundation expects to raise about $500 million for the construction of the Memorial and Memorial Center. The Memorial, it is very well-known by now, is being designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker and is made of reflecting pools within the sunken voids that make up the former Twin Towers. Final designs for the memorial should be released by the end of the month, say LMDC officials.

Board members include politicians including honorary members Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, business leaders like JP Morgan Chase CEO William B. Harrison Jr., victims’ family members like September’s Mission’s founder Monica Iken, art leaders like MOMA President Emeritus Agnes Gund, media leaders like Michael Eisner and Robert DeNiro, and well-known philanthropists. No neighborhood leaders seem to be on the board.

“You won’t find a board of any higher caliber anywhere in the city,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “And there isn’t a more noble cause.”

Sam Lubell