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The World Trade Center Memorial Competition
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23839 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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4 / 2004 |
2,089 Words |
| Author
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Susan Tenaglia
Susan Tenaglia, currently based in New York City, is a dance
writer, critic, and historian. |
The announcement on January 6, 2004, of the winner of the World Trade Center memorial design contest--Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence--is a climactic ending to months of passionate public debate in what was the largest open-design competition in American history. The competition emerged from the need to answer the darkest human tendency to terrorize, kill, and destroy with the brightest human desire to honor, inspire, and transcend. It was, in fact, an attempt to address both public and private pain. As jury member, scholar, and chairman of the Carnegie Corporation Vartan Gregorian put it, "We were searching for a plan that would begin to repair both the wounded cityscape and our wounded souls, to provide a place for contemplation of both loss and new life."
Launched in April 2003 by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation--the organization overseeing the planning and development of the decimated site, including Daniel Libeskind's overall architectural plans--the competition received 5,201 submissions from 63 nations and 49 states. The enthusiastic response arose from the overwhelming nature of the September 11, 2001, tragedy and the world's reaction to it; it also reflected the LMDC's decision to open the competition to "anyone from anywhere" over the age of eighteen who could afford the $25 submission fee.
According to the competition guidelines (posted on the Internet for easy accessibility), all entries were to be submitted and judged anonymously. The media were prohibited from any involvement whatsoever. The secretive process of this first stage was to permit the diverse thirteen-member jury--including Maya Lin, winner of the 1981 Vietnam Memorial competition; a widow of one of the tragedy's victims; New
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