National September 11 Memorial

The design of the 9/11 Memorial was selected through an international design competition that attracted over 5,200 entrants from 63 nations. Michael Arad won the competition in 2004, and joined Handel Architects as a partner shortly after, bringing the skills and talents of the office and its partners to assist him in developing the project.

The Memorial site offers a reserved space for meditation and contemplation, centered around two reflecting pools that sit in the footprints of the original World Trade Center Towers. Lining the perimeter of each fountain is parapet of victims’ names, arranged and inscribed according to a system of “meaningful adjacencies.” The fountains rest within a new plaza that presents carefully chosen green space that acts as a sacred ground for those coming to honor the victims, while also integrating the Memorial into the surrounding city.

The pools are clad in Jet Mist granite, and the names panels are made of bronze that has been treated with a ferric based patina. At night, the names are illuminated from within.

The project's elegant simplicity conceals an incredible complexity of architectural design and engineering. The fourteen-acre WTC site will contain, in addition to the Memorial and the Museum, a Visitor Orientation Center, a new PATH train station, a Subway station, an underground retail concourse, an underground road network with security screening areas, five new office towers, and a Performing Arts Center. Most of these projects interlock physically and programmatically with the eight-acre Memorial site and have required close coordination between the various design teams.

Client

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Awards

Architecture Honor Award | AIA / New York

Liberty Award for Artistic Leadership | Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Best New Landmark, Parks and Public Spaces | Travel + Leisure Magazine

Selected Publications

“A Masterpiece at Ground Zero,” The New York Review of Books, 2011

“The Remains of that day,” Financial Times, 2011

“Shaping the Void,” The New Yorker, 2011

“Review: 9/11 Memorial in New York,” The Washington Post, 2011

“10 years,” Travel Weekly, 2011

“The making of a memorial: Reshaping ground zero,” CNN, 2011

“The Memorial,” Esquire, 2011

“‘Reflecting Absence’ Memorializes 9/11 with Voids that Give Shape to Memory,” AIArchitect, 2011

“A first look at the National September 11 Memorial,” Chicago Tribune, 2011

“Architecture review: National September 11 Memorial,” Los Angeles Times, 2011

“Creating a Place to Honor the Past and Look Ahead,” Architectural Record, 2011

Photography

Joe Woolhead