Editorial Review
The September 11 memorial and museum will pay powerful tribute to a day which forever shaped the twenty-first century. According to the latest design plans, two surviving tridents from the north face of the north tower, which are nearly 90 feet tall will be incorporated into the museum’s atrium and will serve as a symbolic reminder of endurance and resilience of New Yorkers in the face of global catastrophe. Trident-shaped columns will also adorn the exterior to further convey those themes, as well as recall the Gothic arch motif of the original World Trade Center.
Only part of the museum will be above ground. Most of the exhibition galleries will be subterranean spaces which can be accessed via a 72 feet tall polygonal pavilion, the only above-ground portion of the building. It will also house a private room for victims’ families, a 180-seat auditorium for educational programs, and a small café. The pavilion will be surrounded by the landscaped memorial plaza, as well as pools and fountains which will wrap around it on three sides.
The museum is scheduled to open in 2013. However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg in September 2008 called for the dismantling of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation—the agency overseeing the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site—and insisted that the memorial be completed by the tenth anniversary of the attacks in 2011. Construction has already experienced copious delays because of bureaucratic issues, most notably the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s impending plans for to build a complex transit hub by the memorial. Budgetary concerns have also been another source of criticism. Because of such financial concerns, the size of the planned site has also noticeably shrunk since its inception several years ago.
Whether or not there will be an admission fee has yet to be determined.
