National September 11 Memorial & Museum

If someone has a good link to any images of what this memorial will look like, will you post it in the comments or email it to me.

The Arrangement of Victims' Names at the Memorial

In December 2006, National September 11 Memorial & Museum Chairman Mayor Bloomberg announced a revised design concept for the arrangement of victims’ names at the Memorial. The resolution represents a balancing of the original intent behind Michael Arad’s winning Memorial design, Reflecting Absence, and the perspectives and desires of key constituencies of the Memorial, including family members, uniformed rescue personnel, and others.

In the coming months, we will provide more detail regarding the process for the implementation of this design concept, including an opportunity for next-of-kin to verify the names for inscription on the Memorial.

Design Concept
Names will be placed in the ten major identified groupings listed below to allow for family members and co-workers who shared life’s journey and perished together to have their names listed side-by-side.

Michael Arad explains that the design concept lets us “bring more meaning into the arrangement of the names in the Memorial, and harkens back to the notion of meaningful adjacencies that I had hoped to bring to the Memorial's design. This allows us to place the names of those who died that day next to each other in a meaningful way, marking the names of family and friends together, as they had lived and died.”

The ten major identified groupings include:
those who worked at or were visiting Tower 1 on September 11th, 2001
those who worked at or were visiting Tower 2 on September 11th, 2001
those who were in the immediate vicinity of the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001
those who were on Flight 11
those who were on Flight 175
those who were on Flight 93
those who were on Flight 77
those who worked at or were visiting the Pentagon
the first responders on September 11th, 2001
those who died in the 1993 bombing at the WTC

Within these groupings, company and agency employees' names will be clustered together. Additionally, within these clusters, family members can be listed side by side.

Frequently Asked Questions
To answer questions regarding this design, we have provided some explanatory information below. Additional questions and comments can be emailed to Madeleine Blot, Director, Memorial Special Initiatives and one of the Memorial and Museum’s designated family liaisons, at mblot@sept11mm.org

Which groups of names will be listed at the North Pool?
Names placed at the North Pool will include two groupings: those who worked at or were visiting Tower 1; and those who were on Flight 11, which hit Tower 1.

Which groups of names will be listed at the South Pool?
The South Pool will include eight groupings: those who worked at or were visiting Tower 2; those who were in the immediate vicinity of the Towers; those who were on Flight 175, which hit Tower 2; those who were on Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; those who were on Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon; those who worked at or were visiting the Pentagon on September 11, 2001; those killed in the February 26, 1993 WTC bombing; and the first responders.

Will the names of corporations or firms be listed on the Memorial?
Corporate affiliations will not be listed on the Memorial. Company and agency employees and their visitors will be listed together, but without the names of their companies or agencies identified. Passengers of the four flights will be listed together under their flight numbers, without reference to the airline company. First responders will be listed together with their units, as outlined below.

How will first responders be listed?
Within the first responders grouping at the South Pool, names will be listed under headings indicating command or precinct, as appropriate, so that those who came to the site together to help on September 11th from the New York City Fire Department, the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department, and Court Officers can be listed together with their units. The ranks and titles of individual first responders will not be presented in this location.

Is there any difference between the North and South Pool in the way that the names of individuals will be listed?
No; the manner of listing individuals will be exactly the same on both pools.

How will I find my loved one’s name?
Each name location will have an easily identifiable “address” that will consist of three components:
1. North Pool or South Pool
2. Side of Pool North, East, South, or West
3. Numbered Section along the side of the pool (Sections 1-20)
For example, a given name might be located at: North Pool—West Side —Section 4.

There will be a number of ways for visitors to the Memorial to find the names of loved ones, friends, colleagues, and others. The Foundation is committed to ensuring a direct and manageable way for family members to find their loved ones’ name(s), and will send a mailing to next-of-kin in advance of the Memorial’s opening including the location of their loved ones’ names.

When the Memorial opens, information on the names arrangement will be available online through the Foundation’s website, as well as through on-site directories and/or information kiosks located both on the Memorial Plaza and within the Memorial Museum. It is anticipated that there will be many ways to search for victims’ names through these electronic databases, including in alphabetical order and through biographical information.

Where will visitors be able to learn more about the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?
As part of its educational and memorial mandate, the Memorial Museum will provide detailed information about the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. The Museum staff is committed to collecting specific accounts, evidentiary materials, oral histories, and artifacts documenting the lives and experiences of the 2,980 individuals who perished. Such information will inform and be incorporated into the interpretive program now under development. Stories, oral histories, and other materials relating to those killed in the attacks will be made accessible to the public in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, in primary and temporary exhibitions installed within the Museum, in electronic kiosks stationed throughout the Memorial quadrant at the World Trade Center site, in the on-site Digital Resource Center, and on the Museum’s web-searchable collections database.

How was this design concept chosen?
The concept was developed from Memorial Designer Michael Arad’s design intention. In his original submission to the 2003 International Memorial Competition, Michael Arad sought to emphasize the individual aspect of each loss and called for a listing of the names of the deceased that would focus on the given names of those who perished that day. To that end, his design called for an open arrangement of the names to “permit for meaningful adjacencies; for example, siblings who perished together at the site could have their names listed side by side.”

The concept addresses a prevalent desire for family members and colleagues to be listed next to one another. The resolution also responds to the desire for victims’ names to be arranged by tower, by locations where they perished, as well as by sub-groups of affiliated colleagues and passengers. This design is a solution that considered a broad range of views.

In making the announcement of the design concept, the Mayor stated, “The question of how the names are listed evokes strong feeling and convictions from relatives, colleagues and friends of those we lost. I have spent a lot of time listening to everyone’s views on the subject and there is no ‘right’ answer. Nevertheless, it is time to move forward. I believe the solution we present today strikes the right balance and although I don’t expect everyone to be happy with it, I can assure everyone that their views were heard as we struggled with this question.”