Design competition for 9/11 memorial opens
Plans to rebuild site include space for monument
From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
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People around the world are being asked to submit designs for a permanent memorial at the World Trade Center site.
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- The agency overseeing reconstruction of the World Trade Center site launched an open international design competition Monday for a memorial to honor those who died at the hands of terrorists.
A 13-member jury assembled by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. will choose the winning design.
Entrants must be at least 18 years old and pay a $25 fee. Hopefuls must register for the competition by May 29, and proposals are due by June 30.
"This memorial will be for all of the people of New York and really for the world, but especially for all the families," said Paula Grant Berry, a jury member whose husband, David, was killed in the South Tower on September 11, 2001. "I am determined that a memorial be built where we will be proud to bring our children. ... Magnificent people died, and we must be magnificent in how we honor them."
The memorial, which will be incorporated into the design for rebuilding the site where the World Trade Center towers stood, will honor the 2,792 victims of the September 11 attacks, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 truck bombing.
The memorial and a commemorative museum at the site will also pay homage to those killed September 11 at the Pentagon and in the crash of a hijacked plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Concepts must fit on a 40-by-30-inch board that may include photographs of models, computer-generated images, hand drawings and paintings. The call for entries was published in 20 languages, but the entries themselves must be in English. (Competition guidelines)
Entrants will be kept anonymous before the jury, which will narrow the field to as many as five finalists by the second anniversary of the attacks and will likely choose a winner in October.
Among the jurors is Maya Lin, who was a 21-year-old architecture student when she submitted the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington.
"You enter a competition not necessarily to win but to say what you truly believe needs to be done there. I don't believe you try to second-guess any jury," she said. "We're seeking an incredibly moving piece of art, architecture, could be a combination."
The memorial will fit onto a 4.5-acre parcel in the southwest corner of the 16-acre site -- a setting created by architect Daniel Libeskind, whose master plan was chosen for the rebuilding project. (Full story)
"While modeled consistent with standards of previous memorial competitions, this process must in the end produce a memorial like no other," said Anita Contini, who is overseeing the contest for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
