9/11 Memorial
Design of a public memorial featuring an artifact recovered from the World Trade Center site as the centerpiece.
Challenge
Create a lasting memorial honoring the First Responders and thousands of others who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks that happened on American soil on September 11, 2001.
Process
Working with members of the Overland Park Fire Department, a concept—featuring a recovered steel beam from the World Trade Center and incorporating sunlight, water elements and other natural materials—was developed to reverently depict the horrific events of the morning of September 11, 2001.
Solution
Educational panels depict the journeys of the four planes brought down on 9/11. Each journey follows along the celestial path created as the sun travels through the morning hours of 9/11. A beam of light, cast through the standing artifact, will travel along the panels. The exact time of each plane’s impact will be marked on the path with a medallion. The haunting images from that day—people running away from clouds of debris and covered in the remains of the collapsed towers, tears eroding channels on their cheeks—will be symbolized by water flowing over a wall of eroded metal with the simple inscription of 9.11.2001. A flag will quietly fly above the memorial, which is sited at the entrance to the City of Overland Park’s Fire Training Facility.
