World Trade Center Memorial

In August 2006, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began construction on the Memorial and Museum. The Memorial will be located at the World Trade Center site on the building footprint of the two destroyed towers.

It is the winning proposal of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. The original design concept was submitted by Michael Arad, an architect for the New York City Housing Authority. The initial design called for almost no trees or vegetation. This design had been criticized as too severe. Subsequently Peter Walker, a landscape architect from Berkeley, California, was hired to plant vegetation to soften it.

The design is consistent with the original Daniel Libeskind master plan that called for the memorial to be 30 feet below street level (originally 70 feet) in a piazza. The design was the only finalist to throw out Libeskind's requirement that buildings overhang the footprints.

A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and destruction of the World Trade Center to mourn the victims and honor the heroes of that day. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is a non-profit corporation that collects donations for the memorial.

The memorial consists of a park at street level, with, in the footprints of the two destroyed towers, two recessed square pools with the water level 30 feet (9m) below street level, fed by waterfalls along the walls. At the centers of the pools are square parts which are further recessed, and in which the water flows.

Visitors can descend to an underground memorial space around the pool, behind the waterfall; through a curtain of water they can look at the pool. Surrounding the pool, between the visitors and the waterfall, is a low stone parapet. According to the original plan the names of the victims would be inscribed in it, in random order (visitors could locate a particular name with the help of on-site staff or a printed directory), but according to a recent proposal the list of names is at street level. This has the advantage that it can be seen all day, not just during opening hours.

The memorial spaces around the two pools are connected by a passageway.

The memorial itself is planned to be free of charge.

In addition there will be a World Trade Center Museum, also underground. For this there may be an admission fee, but not for immediate family members of victims and 9/11 first responders. Earlier plans for an International Freedom Center have been abandoned.

Please donate to the World Trade Center Memorial. Contributing to the Memorial is a meaningful way to honor or commemorate those who lost their life.