March 3, 2006

	click images to view larger A rendering of the underground Memorial Hall Rendering by DBox, courtesy Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
	A model of the WTC Memorial (the Freedom Tower design has since been changed) Image courtesy Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

With construction on the World Trade Center Memorial about to begin, victims’ families and others began this week pressing for its redesign. On February 27, they gathered at Ground Zero, charging that the current plan is unsafe and disrespects victims by placing their names below street level.

“Reflecting Absence,” the current design by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker, was chosen about two years ago. It marks the outlines of the twin towers with reflecting pools surrounded by the names of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed. An above-ground, tree-lined memorial plaza is planned. The museum to commemorate the events of 9/11, along with the victims’ names and a welcome center will be located underneath the memorial.

The protestors—including victims’ family members, police officers, firefighters, and emergency workers—charge that placing the m useum and the names undergound insults the legacy of those that died. “We ask that the memorial see the light of day and not be hidden in the shadows,” said Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, at the rally. They also claim that with only two main ramps out of the complex, the museum will not have enough fire exits, A group called Take Back the Memorial has formed a web site, www.takebackthememorial.org, and is circulating a petition to stop the memorial’s construction.

The memorial faces other new opposition. Preservationists are arguing that placement of the memorial’s mechanical systems will partially destroy remnants of the Twin Towers’ perimeter columns. Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a city hall press conference on February 27 said he thought the memorial and museum would cost close to $1 billion for the buildings and infostructure, much more than the $500 million that its planners claim.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), which appointed the 13-member panel that chose the memorial design, has said that the memorial and museum will have 15 exits, including emergency stairwells. The LMDC and the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, tasked with overseeing the memorial’s development, could not be reached for immediate comment on the list of concerns, but LMDC spokesperson John Gallagher discussed safety complaints in a written statement: “As we prepare to start construction on the Memorial and the Memorial Museum, the LMDC will continue to work with the FDNY, the NYPD, other agencies and the World Trade Center security team, to make certain that we build a safe facility that can accommodate the millions of visitors who are expected.”

Construction on the memorial is scheduled to start this spring. It is scheduled to open in 2009.

Sam Lubell