WTC memorial finalists unveiled

[unixronin]

(BBC URL gakked from dafydd)

The final eight designs for the World Trade Center memorial have been unveiled.  Two sets of photos are available that I'm aware of -- the BBC has one photo per design, SFGate has two to four.  The SFGate pictures do them better justice, I think.

From the BBC photos, I like "Suspending Memory" and "Passages of Light" the best, but I couldn't really decide on a preference between them.  Then I looked at the SFGate photos.

"Reflecting Absence" doesn't do it for me ... it's too sterile, too enclosed, too walled-off.  I get the feeling it commemorates the buildings, not the victims.  "Votives in Suspension" is an interesting idea, but it's very abstract, and I wonder about maintenance issues.  I very much like "Passages of Light", particularly the way it ribbons the names of rescuers among those of the victims.  "Inversion of Light" and "Dual Memory" are also good, but I dislike the idea of randomly scattering victims' names ... people who lost friends, relatives or family members there should be able to find their names without having to search the entire site.

And then there's "Suspending Memory." Just look at this (full-size view here).

The others are memorials.  Just memorials.

"Suspending Memory" is an elegy.  It's poetry made physical.  It reached out and grabbed me.  It's also the only memorial design that commemorates those killed at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania as well as those who died in the WTC.

So there's my votes ... "Suspending Memory" followed by "Passages of Light".  ("Passages of Light" is currently leading in the BBC's informal poll.)

Comments

[kshandra]

"Reflecting Absence" doesn't do it for me ... it's too sterile, too enclosed, too walled-off. I get the feeling it commemorates the buildings, not the victims.

I actually really like the idea, personally. It gives me a sense of "we shall not pass this way again," which I think any memorial on the WTC site needs - a reinforcement of the idea that nothing could replace the buildings that once stood there, or the people who died on the site.

"Suspending Memory" is beautiful, though I question whether evoking the "gardens of stone" motif of a military cemetary is wise, considering how split the victims' families - and indeed the world - are on whether or not we should have invaded Iraq in retaliation. The fact that it's more a 9/11 memorial than a WTC memorial scores bonus points with me, too.

"Inversion of Light" is right out, imo. I heard too many negative reactions to the last laser installation to think that going down that road again is the right idea.

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I want to know what fimbrethil thinks.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I question whether evoking the "gardens of stone" motif of a military cemetary is wise

Interesting.  To me, it doesn't convey "military cemetery" ... more some kind of odd hybrid between a cemetery and Lothlorien.  It's filled with light, there's individual memorials for each victim, and the actual memorials are on the ground where they all died.  Those two memorial islands standing by themselves in the one great lake of still water sort of say to me, "This shall stand forever separate and inviolate.  The world outside may not invade it.  This space is sacred for all time."

I want to know what fimbrethil thinks.

An excellent point . . . I'd like to hear her views on it too.