{"82691":{"#nid":"82691","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumnus Among Finalists for Design of World Trade Center Memorial","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA proposed memorial designed by a Georgia Tech alumnus in memory of those killed on Sept. 11 is one of eight being exhibited in New York beginning this week.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMichael Arad, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1999 with a master\u0027s degree in architecture, has submitted \u003Cem\u003EReflecting Absence: A Memorial at the World Trade Center Site \u003C\/em\u003Eas a design for the international World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition, launched this past April.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn what has become the largest design competition in history, 5,201 submissions were received from 63 nations and 49 states, according to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). Each proposal was evaluated by a 13-member memorial jury, which is comprised of individuals representing various points of view.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAmong its members are 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\u0022When the LMDC was founded two years ago, one of our key objectives was the creation of a beautiful and fitting memorial to those who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the 1993 bombing [of the World Trade Center],\u0022 said John C. Whitehead, Chairman of the LMDC. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Since then, many organizations have joined the efforts to rebuild Lower Manhattan and honor the victims, but no single group has toiled harder or longer than this dedicated jury,\u0022 Whitehead said. \u0022Through their tireless efforts, they have identified the best work of highly creative individuals and teams from around the globe. Generations to come will see the final design as a time when America was attacked but not bowed and heroes were lost but not forgotten.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe eight finalist designs required certain elements, including delineation of the World Trade Center (WTC) tower footprints, recognition of every individual killed in terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and on Feb. 26, 1993, and a final resting place for unidentified remains. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EArad\u0027s \u003Cem\u003EReflecting Absence \u003C\/em\u003Edesign includes reflective pools set into the ground to cover the WTC 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\u003EIn accordance with competition rules, finalists and jury members are not to speak publicly about their designs or the competition until a winner has been announced. But, Associate Dean Doug Allen in Georgia Tech\u0027s College of Architecture 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 the campus master plan - in particular, the southwestern edge of campus towards Marietta Street. His master\u0027s project, \u003Cem\u003EInsurgent Landscapes\u003C\/em\u003E, was a design for an exhibition landscape that featured a series of mounds, hillocks and caves that would be open to Georgia Tech students and the immediate community.\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\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EKhan said that, of the nine master\u0027s projects submitted the same quarter as Arad\u0027s, his was the only one where the studio inquiry took on both formal and social issues, with each informing and pushing forward the other.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Perhaps the form-making and the social programming was not to everyone\u0027s taste, but his project -- the propositions and the exploration -- had tremendous integrity,\u0022 Khan said.  \u0022What is intriguing is the degree to which the issues he took on in his master\u0027s project -- of power, voice, and identity in a polycultural setting -- resonate with his competition submission.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EArad grew up in Israel, the United States and Mexico. He has been living in this country since finishing his military service in the Israeli Defense Force in 1991. He received a bachelor\u0027s degree from Dartmouth College before beginning his graduate studies at Georgia Tech.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EUpon graduation here, Arad moved to New York City in 1999 and worked as an architect at Kohn Pedersen Fox for three years. He recently joined the Design Department of the New York City Housing Authority and has been working on the design of two NYC police stations. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EArad lives in the East Village in New York City with his wife, Melanie Arad Fitzpatrick, who studied City and Regional Planning here. They have a newborn son, Nathaniel.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"A proposed memorial designed by a Georgia Tech alumnus in memory of those killed on Sept. 11 is one of eight being exhibited in New York beginning this week.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2003-11-25 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:02","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-11-21T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2003-11-21T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"82701":{"id":"82701","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":["82701"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.wtcsitememorial.org\/fin7.html","title":"Michael Arad\u0027s Design Proposal"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.LowerManhattan.info\/","title":"Lower Manhattan Development Corporation"},{"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":""}}}