Overview

From its very inception, the centerpiece of the LMDC’s planning efforts has been the creation of a fitting memorial to those lost on September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The over 6-acre memorial, Reflecting Absence, will ensure that future generations will know where the towers once stood and will never forget each individual life taken during those tragic days. An over 100,000 square-foot interpretive museum underground, the Memorial Center, will tell the countless individual and collective stories of the attacks. Through its historic and authentic location, it will recognize the rescue and recovery efforts and the innumerable acts of heroism that emerged from the tragedy.

Memorial Selection Summary

In April 2003, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation launched what became the largest design competition in history. Across six continents, from 63 nations and 49 states, 5,201 individuals answered the call to honor all who were killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 and February 26, 1993.

The Process

The centerpiece of LMDC's effort is the creation of a memorial at the World Trade Center site. LMDC has developed a clearly defined process to guide the development of the memorial that is closely coordinated with the redevelopment process for the World Trade Center site.

To learn more about the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, please visit www.WTCSiteMemorial.org.  

Two major components of the process were the creation of a memorial mission statement and a memorial program. The mission statement describes the purpose of the memorial, while the program describes the principles that the memorial must embody and the elements it must feature to be considered in the competition. 

The mission statement and program were released for public comment from January 8, 2003 through February 2, 2003, and revised based on more than 2,000 comments received during that period.  The drafts were developed by two separate committees, convened by the LMDC and comprised of family members, residents, survivors, first responders, arts and architecture professionals and community leaders. The committees premised their work on an initial memorial mission statement and program developed by the LMDC Families Advisory Council last spring.

The mission statement and program were the core of the guidelines of LMDC's World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition.

Research

LMDC Board Members, Staff and Families visit memorials across the country

There are many paths to the creation of a meaningful and successful memorial.  LMDC has been actively engaged in researching precedents and protocols for the development of a World Trade Center memorial.

LMDC organized and hosted a speaker series on memorial-related topics.  This series was designed to provide insight into the process of commemoration, and present for discussion a variety of historical, social and artistic perspectives. The ideas generated over the course of these three evenings expanded and enlivened the conversation about a World Trade Center memorial.

Participating speakers included:

• James Young, Professor of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,
• Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art,
• Sara Bloomfield, Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,
• Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the MOMA who was a Professor of the History of Art at Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study, prior to his passing earlier this year,
• Kenneth Jackson, President of the New York Historical Society, and
• Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine.

In early October 2002, a group of LMDC Board members, staff and victims' families traveled the nation to gain insight into how other memorials were created and to demonstrate solidarity with other communities victimized by September 11, 2001.   The group visited Somerset County, PA, Washington. D.C., Oklahoma City and Montgomery, Alabama.  At each site, they met with officials responsible for the development, creation and operation of memorials and museums. In addition to a national tour, LMDC staff toured memorials throughout New York City.

The Memorial Center

In January 2004, LMDC unveiled the winning World Trade Center Site Memorial design, Reflecting Absence, by Michael Arad and Peter Walker. LMDC and Studio Daniel Libeskind, working in collaboration with the memorial design team of Michael Arad and Peter Walker, established a location for a below grade Memorial Center dedicated to the events of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993 at the southwest corner of the memorial site.

In April 2004, LMDC announced the formation of a Memorial Center Advisory Committee to make recommendations for the Memorial Center. The Advisory Committee — victims' family members, residents, survivors, first responders, historians, preservationists, and curators — visited the WTC memorial site and Hangar 17 at JFK Airport, where many artifacts from the World Trade Center are being stored, and met with professionals to learn from their experience in creating exhibitions. The Advisory Committee also reviewed an expansive list of archives and resources relating to the attacks. Through a series of facilitated meetings, the Advisory Committee first produced a set of Draft Recommendations for the Memorial Center. These recommendations were released for public comment in June of 2004 and then finalized in August of 2004 More »

Additional Memorial Activities

Beginning in March 2002, LMDC helped establish and finance the interim World Trade Center memorial in historic Battery Park that incorporates the Sphere by Fritz Koenig, which once stood in the World Trade Center Plaza.

The LMDC also worked with the Port Authority to create a public viewing wall around the site's perimeter, which lists the name of every victim lost on September 11^th  and the history of the site.