Buildings
Protest Grows over World Trade Center Memorial
(archrecord.construction.com - 03/03/2006)
By Sam
Lubell
A rendering of the underground
Memorial Hall
Rendering by DBox, courtesy Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation |
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A model of the WTC Memorial (the Freedom
Tower design has since been changed)
Image courtesy Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
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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.
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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, 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.
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