In November 2003 architect Michael Arad learned that his proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial was among the eight finalists selected by the jury. Through a series of meetings with the jury he was encouraged to rethink the park level of the memorial and to collaborate on this development with a landscape architect. Michael selected Peter Walker and Partners. Over the next several weeks the park was developed under review of the jury and on January 5, 2004, the revised scheme was selected as the winner.   The concept of the proposal contains two gigantic voids representing the destroyed twin towers. These 200-by-200-foot voids cut thirty feet into the site are lined with water cascades that fall into a pool below and then disappear into a deeper, smaller void. Ramped passageways lead the visitor down through darkness to the level of the pool, which is again visible through the cascade. Between the pool and the visitor is a low parapet wall randomly inscribed with the names of the victims of the 1993 and 2001 attacks.   Below the north pool a chamber at bedrock level honors the victims whose remains could not be identified. The room is open to the sky. Adjacent to the memorial underneath the park surface a museum displays artifacts of the World Trade Center destruction. The awesome scale of the voids recalls the terrible losses of September 11.   The memorial park is being designed to accomplish four main objectives: First, to deepen and therefore enlarge the visitor's perception of the level plane into which the voids are cut. Second, to participate in the procession that is essential to the visitor's experience of the memorial. Third, to gently separate the reverential aspect of the memorial from the busy daily life of the surrounding city. Fourth, to provide a quiet, beautiful, and human-scaled public open space for Lower Manhattan. To accomplish these goals with a relatively small and irregular site, an abstract forest grove of dozens of deciduous trees with elongated trunks are planted irregularly along a series of east-west lines, which Arad has likened to an abacus.   This scheme establishes an ordering system from the inside of the park rather than at its edges. From the north and south a visitor will experience what seems to be a naturalistic forest. From the east and west the visitor will experience the lines of trees as a series of colonnades.   Above the trimmed-up elongated stems a canopy of leaves will provide a green rebirth in spring, welcome shade through the heat of the summer, and seasonal color in the fall. In the winter the sun will shine through a light tracery of bare branches. Through the stems of the trees the flat plane of the park is visible in its entirety. The density of the stems extend the apparent depth and size of the plane and at the same time soften the view of the immense buildings and the street life beyond. The trees stop at the voids, reinforcing the aspect of emptiness and loss.   The floor of the park is made of elongated pieces of stone (eight by thirty inches) and low plantations of grasses, mosses, and flowering ground covers. At points of entry to the park and the memorial and in the areas surrounding the voids, the paving would be almost entirely stone, providing smooth, safe, comfortable walking surfaces. Beyond the busy traffic areas, the stone paving would gradually open up, giving way to predominantly planted surfaces, soft to the eye and to the touch. The design provides many benches for the memorial visitors as well as people from the neighborhood. A small clearing in the grove creates a space for family gatherings. We intend that by reminding the visitor of the natural cycle of life, the park will add a dimension of hope to the memorial.     First Place, Design Competition for World Trade Center Memorial, New York, New York; Architect: Michael Arad.

 

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