For the first time, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza was open on the evening of September 11th, allowing the public a close-up look at the Tribute in the Light and see it by the waterfalls and reflecting pools.
The installation remains powerful when viewed from a distance—seeing the light from downtown, leading to the sky—reminds us a little more of everyone and everything that was lost on that day.
The ethereal installation, which involves high-powered lights at a lower Manhattan location, was commissioned by Creative Time after the attacks. Artists Julian Laverdiere and Paul Myoda had proposed the twin beams of light for a NY Times Magazine feature and the Tribute was first lit for the six month anniversary of the attacks.
Creative Time aptly described the memorial as "an ethereal surrogate for the absent towers, the lights’ white luminescence not only replaces the void in New York’s skyline with a sense of memory and the possibility of hope and rebirth, but its ghostly presence is also a moving commemoration of the thousands of men and women who died on September 11, 2001."
The funding for Tribute In Light has been imperiled in the past, but is now under management of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
