Reflecting Absence
Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence consists of a field of trees interrupted by two large voids containing recessed pools, marking the footprints of the Twin Towers. The deciduous trees (swamp white oaks) are arranged in rows, forming informal clusters, clearings and groves. The park is at street level, sitting above the Memorial Museum. The World Trade Center site is a bathtub, as the area was excavated to construct the original World Trade Center and the earth was used to build Battery Park City, a neighboring residential community.
The names of the victims of the attacks (including those from the Pentagon, American Airlines flight 77, and United Airlines flight 93) and the 1993 bombing are inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls, in an arrangement based on "meaningful adjacencies".
A portion of the Slurry Wall (approximately half of what Daniel Libeskind originally wanted to preserve), originally designed to hold back the Hudson River, will be maintained in the Museum.
Read more about this topic: World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
Famous quotes containing the words reflecting and/or absence:
“Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“Being oppressed means the absence of choices.”
—bell hooks (b. 1955)