{"82391":{"#nid":"82391","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumnus Design Chosen for Future World Trade Center Memorial","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFollowing an eight-month international competition that drew more than 5,000 entries, a memorial designed by a Georgia Tech alumnus has been chosen as the future World Trade Center Memorial in New York City. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMichael Arad, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1999 with a master\u0027s degree in architecture, designed \u003Cem\u003EReflecting Absence: A Memorial at the World Trade Center Site \u003C\/em\u003Efor the international World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, launched in April 2003. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHis original design includes reflecting pools and waterfalls in the footprints where the former World Trade Center towers once stood. It is to be built in memory of all the victims of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and of the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I am very honored and overwhelmed by the news that the jury has selected my design,\u0022 Arad said. \u0022I hope that I will be able to honor the memory of all those who perished, and create a place where we may all grieve and find meaning.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I will do my best to rise to the enormity of the task at hand. It is with great humility that I regard the challenges that lie ahead -- and it is with great hope that I will find the strength and ability to meet them,\u0022 he said. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn what became one of the largest design competitions in history, 5,201 submissions were received from 63 nations and 49 states, according to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). Arad\u0027s entry was chosen as the winning design by a 13-member memorial jury. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe competition\u0027s jury includes world-renowned artists and architects, a family member of a person killed on Sept. 11, a lower Manhattan resident and business owner, representatives of New York\u0027s governor and New York City\u0027s mayor, as well as other prominent arts and cultural professionals. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I think he did a magnificent job of sorting through all the many different interests and requirements needed for this memorial at this site,\u0022 said Doug Allen, associate dean of Georgia Tech\u0027s College of Architecture. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022His is a quiet scheme. It\u0027s a complex and difficult thing to pull off at this particular location, and for someone at his age to design this scheme and have it chosen is truly significant,\u0022 Allen said. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EVartan Gregorian, chairman of the jury that selected Arad\u0027s design for the memorial, said, \u0022In its powerful, yet simple articulation of the footprints of the Twin Towers, \u003Cem\u003EReflecting Absence \u003C\/em\u003Ehas made the gaping voids left by the Towers\u0027 destruction the primary symbol of loss. While these voids still remain empty and inconsolable, the surrounding plaza\u0027s design has evolved to include teeming groves of trees, traditional affirmations of life and rebirth.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The result is a memorial that expresses both the incalculable loss of life and its regeneration,\u0022 Gregorian said. \u0022Not only does this memorial creatively address its mandate to preserve the footprints, recognize individual victims and provide access to bedrock, but it also wonderfully reconnects this site to the fabric of its urban community.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOfficials said that Arad\u0027s winning design has evolved significantly since the eight finalists were placed on exhibit at New York City\u0027s Winter Garden this past November, and more changes are expected before it is to be built.  A new design will be unveiled in a public presentation to take place next week, officials said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EArad\u0027s current \u003Cem\u003EReflecting Absence \u003C\/em\u003Edesign includes reflective pools set into the ground to cover the World Trade Center\u0027s footprints. Each pool is fed by a waterfall around its edges, and names are engraved in the stone around them. The pools also are surrounded by pine trees and stone paths.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EArad lives in the East Village in New York City with his wife, Melanie, who studied city and regional planning at Georgia Tech. They have a newborn son, Nathaniel. Professor Allen said he remembers Arad and his work at the Institute very well. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022He was really bright, and worked hard at his design skills,\u0022 Allen said. \u0022Obviously, he learned a lot.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor his master\u0027s thesis project at Georgia Tech, Arad examined a portion of Georgia Tech\u0027s master plan that tackled a transitional portion of the campus. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The formal language of his master\u0027s project came out of a study of the marginal and accidental spaces around freeways, plus his experimentation with digital software programs,\u0022 College of Architecture Associate Dean Sabir Khan said. \u0022Both were very new to Michael. The social programming came out of his readings on, and experiences with, contested landscapes.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Following an eight-month international competition that drew more than 5,000 entries, a memorial designed by a Georgia Tech alumnus has been chosen as the future World Trade Center Memorial in New York City.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-01-07 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:02","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2004-01-06T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"82401":{"id":"82401","type":"image","title":"Reflecting Absence","body":null,"created":"1449178087","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:07","changed":"1475894698","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:58"},"82411":{"id":"82411","type":"image","title":"Reflecting Absence","body":null,"created":"1449178087","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:07","changed":"1475894698","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:58"}},"media_ids":["82401","82411"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.renewnyc.com\/","title":"Lower Manhattan Development Corp."},{"url":"http:\/\/www.wtcsitememorial.org\/","title":"World Trade Center Memorial Competition"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.coa.gatech.edu\/arch\/","title":"Architecture Program"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.coa.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech College of Architecture"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["matthew.nagel@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}