Libeskind's "wedge of light" WTC design isn't what you thought. Specifically, if you thought that sunlight would shine down on the plaza at precisely the interval between the time the first tower was hit, and the time the last tower fell...no. That's not what Libeskind meant after all. Actually, there would be shadows, it turns out. From other buildings! So funny, so pathetic.
posted by luser on May 1, 2003 - 10 comments

184 Cantilevered Aluminum Benches and 70 Maple Trees make up the memorial at the Pentagon for September 11. I like its solitude, its stillness. What do you think?
posted by tommyspoon on Mar 4, 2003 - 23 comments

The two finalists for the WTC site have reportedly been chosen. The Think design and the Daniel Libeskind submission. I just hope its the 'high funded' Think version. (Although I'm also sruprised (in a good way) that it actually made it through ... considering it doesn't replace the missing office space)
posted by MintSauce on Feb 4, 2003 - 21 comments

The six finalists in the Pentagon Memorial design competition. The contest (official site) has "emerged as a kind of dress rehearsal" [NYT] for the upcoming World Trade Center competition. The Post reviewed the proposals, which will be narrowed to a winner on Feb. 21.
posted by mediareport on Jan 1, 2003 - 8 comments

Tumbling Woman A statue of a falling woman designed as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death from the World Trade Center was abruptly draped in cloth and curtained off Wednesday because of complaints that it was too disturbing. It's all right if you don't want to discuss it here and now. I was also in NYC and saw the towers on that day.
posted by neu on Sep 18, 2002 - 70 comments

The Shot Chord Heard Round the World! On the morning of Nine Eleven 2002 at 8:46am, over 160 choirs across the world will sing Mozart's "Requiem" to metaphorically stand in for the thousands of voices silenced a year ago. Among all the ideas I've heard to commemorate this occasion, this one seems the most dignified, and least cringeworthy. They mentioned it on NPR's Morning Edition (caution: Real Audio file).
posted by ZachsMind on Sep 10, 2002 - 33 comments

"In tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, Blue Man Group has created an eloquent video. The usually explosive performance artists do not appear in it; there are no blue-painted heads in sight. Instead, pieces of white paper drift down in front of a pure black background as percussive music plays. All these papers were found in Brooklyn, where they floated across the river from the World Trade Center." (Quoting The New York Times.)
posted by Soliloquy on Sep 6, 2002 - 30 comments

Is the planned WTC memorial in the wrong place? "There is a desperate futility in the project as presently conceived, because even if the whole site were turned into a memorial garden it would be in the wrong place. For most of the dead did not die there at all, but a thousand feet away, a sixth of a mile, directly above. "

Finally IMHO the perfect solution! The city gets its office space back, the country gets its memorial, the world gets a shockingly wonderful new piece of architecture.
posted by revbrian on Aug 7, 2002 - 59 comments

"Towers of Light" given ok by Bloomberg "There's nothing we can do to bring back those we lost, but we have to make sure we have a way to remember". Towers of Light and a now-damaged sculpture called "The Sphere," which stood in the fountain of the trade center plaza, will form two temporary memorials.
posted by Mutha on Mar 5, 2002 - 11 comments

Criticism Over WTC Statue Race Issues -- I'm sure many of you are familiar with a recent photo featuring three firefighters raising an American flag over the WTC rubble. Now a company has been commissioned to make a statue of the photo at FDNY Brooklyn Headquarters. In the statue though, the three white men who were originally depicted in the photo have been transformed into one white man, one black man, and one Hispanic man. There has been criticism over whether it is going to far to make these changes in order to be politically correct. Others are saying the statue should be more of a symbolic representation of all ethnicities that sacrificed themselves during this tragedy. What do you think?
posted by yevge on Jan 12, 2002 - 36 comments

Widow of Sept. 11 Hero Gives Birth. "Lisa Beamer, the widow of the man who cried, 'Let's roll!' as passengers aboard one of the doomed Sept. 11 flights prepared to confront their hijackers, has given birth to a healthy girl." How bittersweet; a part of him lives on, but I'm sure there is sadness because the husband couldn't be there for the birth.

Also, the Beamers have started a memorial foundation for children who lost parents in the 9/11 attacks.
posted by jennak on Jan 11, 2002 - 9 comments

For the Mormons here at MeFi -- and, of course, anyone else -- the Church is broadcasting a Memorial Service nationwide, that is also being streamed (requires Windows Media Player). I'm sure other national religious organizations are doing the same... so if you know of others, post them here.
posted by silusGROK on Sep 14, 2001 - 0 comments