WTC MEMORIAL ARTICLE FROM THE BERGEN RECORD
| A Simple and Fitting Tribute
Thursday, June 22, 2006 By MIKE KELLY |
This is definitely not an artistic spot, this brick wall on the side of a firehouse that overlooks Ground Zero and a building being demolished.
But there is a lesson for the future of Ground Zero here.
That brick wall is home to the first 9/11 memorial near the former site of the World Trade Center. The memorial is not only a moving piece of art; it sends a message about what memorials should do.
The battle over how to commemorate almost 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attacks began even before the rubble was carted from Ground Zero.
Often lost during the debate was a simple fact: Memorials should first remember the dead. In the case of Ground Zero, this meant listing names — prominently, extensively.
The memorial, announced after a worldwide competition several years ago, did not follow that logic. The design, with the goofy title of “Reflecting Absence,” placed panels with victims’ names far below ground, amid waterfalls and pools.
Think of a cave.
This design was the work of an artist, who seemed determined to create a memorial that people had a hard time getting to. Practical considerations, such as dampness from all that water 70 feet below ground in an already watery area, were not discussed in a big way.
But when nuts-and-bolts engineers took a look at “Reflecting Absence,” they reflected what most ordinary folks thought already: This is ridiculous.
For starters, how would throngs of people congregate 70 feet below ground in limited space?
Next came questions about where to put heating and air conditioning equipment in an area that was also supposed to be home to a major commuter rail hub and the foundation for a 1,776-foot skyscraper.
Then came security concerns.
Police wanted all visitors below ground to pass through metal detectors. Was that solemn? Practical?
Why make this experience so hard? Or to put it another way: Why hide all this below ground?
Fortunately, the memorial design seems to be changing. The final breaking point was cost — estimated to be about $1 billion to build all the ramps, elevators, waterfalls, and heating and cooling systems below ground.
A new design, unveiled this week, places the names of the dead on outdoor panels, at plaza level. But there are still waterfalls and a museum far below ground.
Why?
The original designer of “Reflecting Absence” harshly criticized the new proposal. But so what? It’s time for a little common sense.
Which brings us back to that firehouse wall at the corner of Liberty and Greenwich streets.
Not willing to wait for the final memorial, New York’s Fire Department commissioned its own tribute to its 343 members killed when the Twin Towers fell. What emerged was a 56-by-6-foot bronze bas-relief memorial that will not win any awards at modern art schools.
This is something from the 19th century, perhaps along the lines of what you might see at Gettysburg.
But it’s perfect and beautiful.
We see more than 40 firefighters depicted in many phases of their heroic work on 9/11, from aiming water hoses to washing dust from their faces in a hydrant.
But what draws spectators are the names.
The other day, dozens of people stood quietly.
“Look,” a woman whispered to a little boy as she pointed to a name.
At another section, a man in a gray suit stood in silence.
In the end, those names help us remember. They are the human link to the inhumanity of 9/11.
No waterfall can do that.
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