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The better memorial

11 comments on The better memorial

memorial114.jpgThe better memorial
: I have to say I feel better about the World Trade Center memorial after reading reports on its massive revision in the NY Times and NY Post today.

My problem with the design as first announced was that it was so cold and sterile — as cold and sterile as a bathroom floor, as inhuman as an East Berlin plaza — when this is a very human tragedy and human lesson that requires a human memorial.

It’s better.

The trees give it life.

The lower rooms give it contemplative space.

The artifacts from the buildings and the day give it reality.

I am still concerned that it is too architectural. I’m also concerned that, at street level with the street so near, it is not a place of memory but instead just a park to pass by or perhaps gawk at.

It is still not the memorial I would have wanted.

But for the first time I can imagine growing to it.

11 responses to “The better memorial”

  1. djspicerack Avatar
    djspicerack

    Agreed, Jeff. That was my only complaint since I know I’m going to have to suck it up and deal with whatever is there – is that it was another parking lot wind-filled grey area. Trees should help it out a little bit, hopefully.

  2. BAM Avatar
    BAM

    The trees do look nice but I just realized why I like the design – The building looks like it’s giving the finger (hopefully toward Mecca)
    It’s a true New Yorker.

  3. CERDIP Avatar
    CERDIP

    You know, I like the new design, and the old one somewhat as well.
    But something bugged me about it, and I couldn’t pinpoint it until yesterday:
    The current design allows those that support the terrorists’ actions to look at those two empty spaces with satisfaction.
    And that bothers me.

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Are their still plans to drop the main traffic lanes of West Street one level below ground to create a full pedestrian link between the WTC memorial area, and the World Financial Center and Battery Park City? I would assume there will still be some vehicular traffic up at the street level even if it’s done, but the removal of the main eight-land traffic source from the area will also serve to make the site a more people-friendly place.
    The original WTC design was tremendously unfriendly to the surrounding neighborhood in terms of pedestrian access, esepcially from West Street and Vescey Street on the north side. How approachable the new memorial is for people on foot from all directions will play a significant role in its overall success, and as of now, I have yet to see a decent street-level design conception of the site, only elevated angle images like the one on Jeff’s page.

  5. Frank Hood Avatar
    Frank Hood

    Why didn’t LMDC just hire Maya Lin to design the memorial and save all of us the time and trouble? The whole point of Reflecting Absence was supposed to be the stark reminder of a void where the footprints were. Now there’s a large park with a couple of ponds in the middle of an orchard. Oh and if you want to remember 9/11, you thread your way through the picknickers, find the secret, hidden entrance, go down the long dingy, humid tunnel to remember the tragedy. Never mind that 9/11 meant more than just tragedy to many of us. It meant we were finally going to do something about Americans being attacked and slaughtered. But please no words about standing up for the civilization that built the towers in the first place.
    I don’t get it. The jury picks a design that ignores most of the rules and requirements laid down by the LMDC and then goes about reinserting those requirements haphazardly.

  6. Sharon Gaffney Avatar
    Sharon Gaffney

    I don’t get it. Why aren’t people outraged over this design which is essentially the architects taking the “opportunity” for a new park? A hundred years from now, nobody is going to have a clue about this. Not to mention the insurance nightmare if they don’t put up fencing around the pools of water. And heaven help New York if there is another black out like last summer. The rules estimated up to 80,000 viisitors per day. All crammed in downstairs in a dark and stifling area that will either smell of mildew or chlorine. Do these designers live in the real world or only in their dreams? The memorial is only a memorial to the lost of two buildings, not to people. How sad. The first betrayal occured on 911. The second betrayal of America occurred this week at the hands of Americans saying all the right words, which in the end signify nothing. If the people of New York think a memorial to the loss of two buildings is what they want, then I feel sorry for them. And I hold out little hope that American civilization will survive to celebrate its tricentennial.

  7. John Edwards Avatar
    John Edwards

    I work across the street from the Trade Center site, and I like this design. We don’t need a stark, windswept plaza to remind us of 9/11; a parklike setting doesn’t detract from the memory of those who died. And assuming that the place will be dank and smelly is unduly pessimistic. I’m going to pass by this memorial every day, just as I pass by the pit every day now, and I’ll never forget what happened there. I plan to visit the memorial, and read the names (it’s far from just about the loss of buildings), and reflect. And I’ll do that more than once. And I’ll bring my daughter, who was born three weeks after 9/11, and I’ll make sure she knows what happened and never forgets. So will many, many others.
    By the way, there are plenty of better things to spend a billion dollars on than tunneling a few lanes of West Street. It’s not that hard to cross West Street.

  8. Ted Avatar
    Ted

    I live a block from the WTC and I like this design a lot. It brings life back to a place that needs it desperately, and at the same time offers a quite reflective spot.
    I also agree with John above that there are many better things to do with the huge amount of money they are talking about using to bury 1/2 of West Street.
    Or another issue, has anyone read or heard about what is to be done for the memorial to the 4 or 5 victims of the first terrorist attack on the WTC 10 years ago. It was on the plaza between the 2 towers and was destroyed. Will they rebuild it? Include the names in the new memorial? Seems that something must be done.

  9. The Sanity Inspector Avatar
    The Sanity Inspector

    I agree with Mr. Hood, that the design is a bit too lachrymose. It needs a note of defiance, since 9/11 was an atrocity, not a tragedy. That is, it was an attack, not a natural disaster.

  10. John Edwards Avatar
    John Edwards

    Ted, I’m quite sure the six 1993 victims will be included in some way. I’m not sure if they’ll be set apart or just included in the random list of names in the 9/11 memorial, but they’ll be noted somehow.

  11. Marcel Perez Avatar
    Marcel Perez

    For the folks who need a statement of defiance to express the outrage, sense of loss and rise to recovery and beyond….take a look at that twisting monstrosity in the background. That looks defiant enough to me.
    As a visitor to the city, I would welcome the opportunity to relax in the tranquility (hopefully)of the park…a little semblence of nature in the midst of towering pillars of concrete and steel.