FOCAL POINT STYLING: Remembering 911: Memorial Designs

Much of the focus of September 11th is understandably on New York City and the World Trade Center (WTC). With that in mind, I wanted to start off my tributes with taking a moment to honor and reflect on all three memorial designs. Although I haven't been to Shanksville, PA., the site's memorial plan is underway, and it is scheduled to open on the Tenth Anniversary of 911 - next year. The design plan looks to be a peaceful, open space - reflective of the day...

Memorial Expression

by Paul and Milena Murdoch of Paul Murdoch Architects

FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL
"The Memorial should offer an intimate experience,
yet be heroic in scale." - Paul Murdoch, Architect

Additional information about the Flight 93 Memorial, construction updates, a temporary exhibit, how you can help, and information about this years service with keynote speakers First Lady Michelle Obama and Mrs. Laura W. Bush can be found here at

http://www.nps.gov/flni/

Did you know?

The Flight 93 National Memorial design was selected from over 1,000 entries from 48 states and 27 countries in an international design competition.

One of the other three memorial designs that has already opened is the Pentagon Memorial. It opened September 11th of 2008. Jeff and I had made a trip up to Washington, DC in October of 2008, and we visited the memorial. It was a crisp fall day in DC (you can see in first photo of this post). We ventured to the memorial nearing sunset, and it had gotten a little hazy, but it filtered some of the light. While there, we learned of the interesting concept of the Pentagon's Memorial design...

All photos by Lynda Quintero-Davids

The bench-like silhouette's are designated to each person who lost their life that day. The benches face in two directions: Some face in the flight path toward the Pentagon to symbolize the people on the flight crash. The other benches face away from the Pentagon to symbolize the people who perished inside.

Rather than listing people alphabetically, the bench placements are in chronological order - marked by the years along the perimeter of the memorial. It made for a meandering effect verses a solider-like order, like we saw at some other memorials in DC. The meandering effect, along with small pools of water under each bench, and the gravel ground cover made for a peaceful garden setting...

Jeff and I found our birth years along the memorial perimeter and it made a strong heartfelt impression to relate to the victims here that day. While we were in DC, we also visited the Newseum. The Newseum is an interesting museum dedicated to journalism, newspapers historic news happenings and front pages of almost every international newspaper in print.

I think it was on the fourth floor of this museum we came to a 911 exhibit - specifically for the World Trade Center... and with all the photos I'm always taking, I couldn't take but these two... I sat on a bench and sobbed before walking toward the exhibit, which was not only a wall of ALL the front pages from that day, but the actual antenna from the North Tower...

Seeing this memorial reminded me of the dedication project I made in September 2001, and I was honored to have been able to have on exhibit for about three months at The Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. I had included what information I could find on the Internet at that time - information was so new - not much was available as in comparison to today. Along with this information I collected, I included my personal photos I had taken while standing on the roof of South Tower, just two weeks prior to 911...

My apologies for the fuzziness of the photos... I hadn't yet explored digital photography, so some photos I'll be showing are grainy because they were captured with a 35mm camera and FILM (hmm - imagine that?) Most photos I scanned into the computer about a year or two ago...

I repurposed these folding screens from my old visual room (at work), along with discontinued lettering we had from old directional signs around the store...

The oversized black & white graphic in the center was from a GAP window display (from about 1998). I've had them (3 of them) for a while. I used it in this exhibit because it was a presentation for Building Codes. I featured The Twins and the Means Of Egress (means of exiting a building based on it's occupancy, scale, and fire rated materials). At the time of the construction of the Twins, ADA Laws were not in effect (ADA is the American Disabilities Act - and it has strict guide lines to be followed by architects, engineers, contractors and interior designers). I'm curious to learn how ADA is achieved with skyscrapers...

These panels are a mix of my photos and information from the Internet, but towards the top right of the picture, you can see the image of the antena from the North Tower. My camera had a panoramic capability, but rather than use it horizontal (especially while in NYC) I'd use it vertically...

You can see the antenna better in this image. Also during December 2001, I participated in the installation of South Florida's Winterfest Boat Parade, where I helped design and install a tribute to the World Trade Center.

Which brings me to the Memorial at The World Trade Center site. A lot has changed in Lower Manhattan since my visit there in December of 2001 and my visit there for the first anniversary... although in my personal opinion - not enough. Unfortunately too much politics has hindered progress. The Empire State Building was conceptualized, designed, AND BUILT within ONE YEAR and during the Great Depression - but I'm not going to vent here today... These are a few photos I captured at GZ the day after the first ceremonies...

GZ 2002

GZ 2009

I also visited Battery Park, to see the eternal flame lit

on September 11, 2002, at the Sphere

remarkably recovered from Groundzero...

I made it to NYC for the one year memorial anniversary... and even if I have to eat nothing but grilled cheese and soup all year, I WILL be there next year for the ten year memorial anniversary...

Twin Towers Memorial Design

About the Architects

You can learn more about the Twin Towers Memorial Design, the construction process, updates, and even ways to contribute at www.national911memorial.org. Last year, they made available a means of people contributing their videos, photos, and stories to the historic archives at Make History / National September 11 Memorial & Museum. When making a contribution of your videos, photos or stories at the site site, you can also include a comparison street view of your images then versus how it is now and you'll receive a certificate stating your name and date of your contributions to the historical record.