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.
The Memorial site is a public 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 a parapet of victims’ names, arranged and inscribed according to a system of “meaningful adjacencies.” 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 fountains rest within a new plaza that acts as a sacred ground for those coming to honor the victims, while also integrating the Memorial into the surrounding city.
Constructed, 2012
Show more
The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance, honoring the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993.
The 9/11 Memorial is located at the site of the former World Trade Center complex and occupies approximately half of the 16-acre site. The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest man-made waterfalls in North America.
The granite slabs, installed in 2019, recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others who died or fell ill after exposure to toxins unleashed in the wreckage.