Dave,
Good to compare to the pyramids. It took 20-30 yrs to build one.
Dave,
Good to compare to the pyramids. It took 20-30 yrs to build one.
It took that long to BUILD them, not to decide on what they were going to look like.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nordica
lol ^^ great point ...
Why would the LMDC make a 33 page book of rules including a Memorial Mission Statement and Program made from the collective effort of first responders, families, rescue workers, etc., and then ignore, or refuse to in-force the rules that they painstakingly had just made?
It makes no sense.
Why would they also choose to not review the design boards for adherence to those rules?
It defies logic, and points to something other than the obvious.
I am upset at both the process, and the outcome.
I had a reasonable expatiation that my design would be disqualified, if I violated any of the rules of the competition.
Michael Arad's originally submitted design, was the most egregious violator of the rules of all the eight finalists. And all eight finalists violated the rules.
If you followed the rules, your design would not be chosen, and I question the LMDC's authority to ignore their own rules, especially if that abdication of duty was in the name of
"good decision making."
I cannot imagine a WORSE idea than another memorial competition. Nor do I see why, if the LMDC is so evil and stupid, we should be bound by the meaningless memorial guideline bureaucratese that agency drafted years ago.
Nor is there any need, as the path to fixing the memorial is clear. The so-called "memorial quadrant" (the space between West, Fulton, Greenwich and Liberty Streets) has been set, and no one is seriously advocating changing that at this late stage. Since the family members hate the underground component, it should be dropped. Why spend a billion dollars to piss off the people you are supposed to satisify? Since the FT needs tenants, the exhibit space should be moved there, killing two birds with one stone. The competition winner (RA) can be honored by demarcating the footprints in some manner short of giant holes and waterfalls and such. Since the community likes the at-grade park, it should be retained. And if we want some additional memory of the WTC at ground level, I agree with many of the posters here that the most memorable portion of it is the facade, NOT that stupid staircase, which should be carted off and sent to the trash heap. If I live to 100, I will never forget looking up to the site from Rector Place in BPC and seeing only that facade left atop the rubble pile, all lit up at night by the stadium lighting brought in by the cleanup crew. It was horrific and terrifying and sad and yet somehow striking and beautiful all at the same time, as it was one last part of the WTC that simply refused to die.
Oh, and the Sphere should go back to the EXACT spot it held before, if for no other reason that to orient us old-timers to the radically changed landscape that is to come.
We called them the "Potato Chips"
WTC Chaos Update: Starchitectural Collection Complete!
http://911memorials.org/
Recreating the chip might be cheap compared to what they are doing. They could use existing pieces and suplement with newly forged steal to recreate the rest. Wouldn't the engineering to rebuild a structure like that, even 15 stories high, be achievable? And cant they do 3-d reproductions to ensure that it is constructed in exactly the same shap as the original? It seems to me simply a matter of creating a very large sculpture, expensive in terms of sculpture, but cheap in terms of memorial dollars.
If a movement to work on this meaningful artifact were initiated and seriously persued, some of the other items currently considered important would go away.
Cityslob: While I think the memorial guidelines were misguided, I can imagine the frustration at trying to obey the guidelines only to see some who violated them get chosen. The guidelines were the mistake, and no one should have been told to follow them. They should have been considered suggestions which may or may not have impacted selection of the final memorial.
Bring back the Chip!
Then ^^ you run the risk of getting something like this (undoubtedly the intentions are good, but the execution is something less) ...
Release_of_Souls 9/11 Traveling Memorial
http://www.world-memorial.org/Pitt_New__TN.jpg
The Release of Souls (ROS) 911 Memorial, created by Canadian artists
Louis Louw, Dave Rouleau and Kathleen Tonnesen is touring across
America and this year will be on world tour.
In all things, it's quality that makes the difference between failure and success. The chip would be a challenge. It would have to look like the original chip which had a natural grace, lines that did not at all look like they were from the hands of man. The scale and cost of the challenge would be less than that of two nearly an acre fountains.
If it could be recreated, it would be worth the cost. Then we would have a ruin that would be worthy of the tradition of the Parthenon, Roman Ruins, and Cathedral ruins in England. It would be a statement of what was there, elegantly displayed for throughout history. And it would interfere with nothing. Life, business, retail would all go on unhindered.
It might even brake up the wind tunnels, reducing the spray from the fountains!
Elegant???
Did I miss something here? To me they looked stark, haggard, decimated. The remains of the ribcage of the WTC as the rest of its body lie smoking on the ground.
I never considered it elegant or any kind of testamony. It was just a symbol and reminder of what happened that day. It would be depressing and morbid to have as a symbol, but it would indeed bring to mind nothing but the experience of that day.
Noone looks at the ruins of rome and thinks "Gee, this place would be great with a coffehouse!". They think of what WAS there, when it was built and what it held. Seeing that facade piece would evoke something similar.
As for fountains..... I think they could use a starbucks.
But isn't that the point of the memorial?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninjahedge
Or do we want to recreate a sense of what the place was like beforehand? I think that is clearly impossible. A sense of scale and a marker to define the buildings can be accomplished with two pools of water (or whatever) at street grade. If you drop the footprints to bedrock (concrete slab) concept, the memorial becomes less expensive, more focused, and easily accessed.
It's hardly essential for memorials to be morbid. There are plenty of examples of inspirational ones.
^
Not morbid...this:
If you were inspired by the events, fine.Quote:
it would indeed bring to mind nothing but the experience of that day.
Inspiration is best left for museums.
The way people came together to face the crisis was inspirational. That theme could be symbolic and not tucked into a museum.