The Associated Press was given a demonstration today in the Brooklyn Navy Yard of one corner of the waterfalls that will eventually be used for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The waterfall is part of "Reflecting Absence," designed by memorial architect Michael Arad. Builders have been tinkering with the project, which consists of two waterfalls and their pools, in anticipation of moving it to the Twin Towers site by the tenth anniversary of the attacks next year.
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Nearly six years ago, in November 2003, a design called Reflecting Absence, by NYC Housing Authority architect Michael Arad, was selected as one of the finalists for the World Trade Center Memorial. His design featured two pools in the footprints of the WTC's towers, with waterfalls cascading down their sides, and in January 2004, the design, revised with landscape designer Peter Walker, was chosen as the winning design. Today, the Port Authority says the Memorial is slated to open on September 11, 2011, in time for the tenth anniversary. We spoke to Arad, now a partner at Handel Architects, for a few minutes yesterday and asked about the long road the project has taken. more ›

The Port Authority says it will turn over the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein in the next few days. Which means that the Port Authority, which owns the site, is within its target handover period the agency mentioned last month—yet it's still over a year past the various deadlines set to turn the land over. These delays have resulted in tens of millions in penalties (they rack up at $300,000/day) the Port Authority must pay to Silverstein. more ›

It looks like the World Trade Center Memorial has hit a delay. Originally scheduled to open on September 11, 2009, the Port Authority said today that it won't be ready until 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The delays only came to light after construction began and the agency could give a more realistic timeline. A Port Authority spokeswoman said, "We see the reality, and want to operate on responsible timelines. We'll work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible." more ›

Almost two years ago, Governor George Pataki helped to lay the 20-ton, Adirondack granite cornerstone for the Freedom Tower. And it wasn't until just this past month that the financial bickering between Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority were finally sorted out so construction could begin in earnest. more ›

The World Trade Center memorial, Reflecting Absence, will finally gets the chance to change from design to reality as crews prepare the area at Ground Zero for the memorial. However, some families of September 11 victims are still upset with the design and plan to protest today at noon. Their main complaints are that the memorial does not preserve the footprints of the old WTC building, the memorial is submerged in the ground and that the names of victims are listed randomly. The state Historic Preservation Office is looking into whether or not the footprints should be kept, and critics are going to try to have a judge block construction. Mayor Bloomberg said, "That decision was made - now we have to go and build it. The time for expressing yourself has come and gone, and now we should rally behind this design and go ahead ... [and] build this memorial." While redevelopment has not been very smooth, Gothamist has to agree that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation seems to have tried to use public comment to inform the design - and that some of these issues have been in the news for over two years (the NY Times had an article about the difference between the WTC footprints and the memorial's "voids" two years ago). more ›

This is what all the testing with the Canadian fountain consultant has determined: The waterfalls at the World Trade Center memorial will be turned off during the winter, for fear of injuring visitors with flying droplets of ice. The LMDC decided to "winterize" the waterfalls because it would cost four times more (than the maintenance?) to heat the water for the falls to run smoothly. While the decision was the fiscally practical one, a mother of a WTC victim said, "It's like an eternal flame and you don't shut off an eternal flame. These things should have been considered in the beginning." Yeah, you'd think. more ›

NY1 reports that the WTC Memorial, Reflecting Absence, has been tested by a fountain consultant. The consultant constructed a "full-scale mock-up of some fountain configurations" to look for "potential problems with freezing and winter conditions"; the design has two pools in the footprints of the old World Trade Center Towers, with waterfalls around them. Outgoing Lower Manhattan Development Corportation President Kevin Rampe says that memorial groundbreaking is still "on track" for 2006, even in spite of the Ground Zero issues. You can learn more about Reflecting Absence at the LMDC. more ›

Additionally, The architecture firm Davis Brody Bond was appointed to help with work on Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence Memorial. WTC memorial jury chairman Vartan Gregorian said, "They would not do anything, in my opinion, to scuttle the vision of Arad and Walker, and they also know the ways of New York and how things are done," and the Times notes that two members of DBB's design team are black, whereas all the designers involved with the WTC rebuild so far have been white. Davis Brody Bond projects around the city, besides the Harvard Club and NYPL expansions mentioned in the papers, include the NYU dorm on East 14th (between 3rd and 4th Avenues), the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, and that ugly Union Square Building, Zeckendorf Towers. more ›