The National September 11 Memorial & Museum
The National September 11 Memorial
is New York City's newest landmark. A moving dedication ceremony was held for victims’ families on September 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary of the attacks. Former U.S. President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama attended the commemoration ceremony.
The Memorial opened to the general public a day later as the first project of the World Trade Center redevelopment plan to open at the 16-acre site in lower Manhattan.
The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and in February 1993. Each of the Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are nearly an acre in size and feature the largest man-made waterfalls in North America.
The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools. The victims’ names are not arranged in a conventional order, but by “meaningful adjacencies.” These layers of meaning reflect where people were, who they were with on 9/11, and more than 1,200 requests made by victims' next of kin for individual names to be next to one another.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum will open in September 2012 as the country’s principal institution exploring the implications of the events of 9/11. The Museum will document the impact of those events and explore 9/11’s continuing significance. 110,000 square feet of exhibition space will tell the story of 9/11 through multi-media displays, artifacts and personal accounts.
The Memorial plaza will serve as an eight-acre green roof to the Museum, as part of the project’s plan to achieve LEED Gold. The irrigation and storm water harvesting systems will ensure sustainable treatment of the site and conserve energy, water and material resources.
Faithful+Gould has executed program management, project management, cost planning and estimating, cost management, scheduling and dispute resolution services for the 9/11 Memorial and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) for eight years.
Our program management services contend with a physically constrained site, facilitating operation of an island of public space within a large and complex construction arena. The cost management is carried out within a context of funding limitations running parallel with certain sensitivities and public expectations. We are also providing program management services to the City of New York for the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center.
This is a special project for Faithful+Gould. We feel privileged to make a contribution at this hugely significant site. The dedication ceremony was very moving and naturally the mood was sombre. Yet once everyone got inside the plaza and started to experience the pools and names parapets, there was an amazingly uplifting atmosphere and a real sense of looking forward and healing.