The 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.
