Right now, “Empty Sky,” the state’s $13 million 9/11 memorial project in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, is just a huge hill framed against the Manhattan skyline, and not ready for any tributes or memorials this coming Sept. 11.
But plans by the state moved forward last week to finish the memorial. It will include two steel walls – 30 feet high and 200 feet long – inserted into the hill by Sept. 11 of next year, the 10th anniversary of that tragic day.
The walls will have the engraved names of New Jersey’s 744 victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Construction on the memorial started in May 2009, about six years after designs were first solicited. The winning design by New York architect Frederic Schwartz was chosen in 2004 by a jury of victims’ families out of 320 submissions.
The state has an aggressive deadline to finish the ‘Empty Sky’ memorial by Aug. 30, 2011.
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Pratt said the RFP will be advertised until Sept. 23 with a submission deadline for RFP’s of Oct. 29. The winning RFP will be selected on Nov. 1, according to Pratt.
Pratt said the state is moving toward an “aggressive deadline” to finish the memorial by Aug. 30, 2011, almost two weeks before 9/11.
Pratt also said the winning contractor will have to build out the memorial in a different manner that originally intended. For example, the walls will be steel on the inside, with the outside surface done with architecturally finished concrete that will make it look attractive rather the flat, drab coating of most concrete finishes.
So far, two phases of construction of the memorial already have been completed, including the creation of the hill, the grading, and the installation of irrigation and drainage systems.
Still subject to debate
This new turn of events in the “Empty Sky” saga arouses the ire of Sam Pesin, the president of the group Friends of Liberty State Park. Pesin’s father, Sam, was one of the founders of the park, which opened in 1976.
The Friends group, which advocates for the preservation of the park’s open space, has fought the memorial for the last few years out of the concern the memorial will block too much of the views from Liberty State Park of the New York skyline, and particularly Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. They’ve gotten support from local officials, including Mayor Jerramiah Healy and state Senator Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson).
“We may be opposed to the memorial’s present location but we continue to have sympathy for and respect the people who lost loved ones on 9/11,” Pesin said.
Pesin is still adamant that the memorial be relocated to another part of the park, preferably to a 10-acre area in the park where the 750-tree Grove of Remembrance, dedicated to New Jersey’s victims, is located.
He also would like the state to tear down the hill and restore the park’s public plaza, which was previously on the current site of the memorial.
However, Bayonne resident Betzy Parks takes a different view of the memorial. Parks is a founding board member of the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial Foundation, which advocates for the memorial. Parks’ brother, Robert E. Parks Jr., was killed on 9/11 as he was trying to leave the 1 World Trade Center building, where he worked on the 105th floor for the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
Parks is grateful that the state is pushing to build out “Empty Sky.”
“While I am unable to speak for the entirety of the Families of September 11, personally my family is peacefully relieved that together the State of New Jersey, the Port Authority, and our NJ Sept 11 Memorial Foundation is able to move forward on this well-timed resolution and completion of the final phase of construction of ‘Empty Sky,’” Parks said.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.
Other 9/11 ceremonies
• The ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 will be commemorated in Jersey City, where many survivors were brought over from Ground Zero by ferry to be treated for injuries. A total of 37 Jersey City residents died that day. The Circle of Honor induction will be held during a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial Fountain in Journal Square at 5 p.m. The fountain is engraved with the names of Jersey City 9/11 victims, and those victims are honored during the ceremony. Surrounding the fountain is a Circle of Honor of other Jersey City residents who had an impact on their community. This year the honorees include Robert (Bobby) Jackson, Dan McNulty, Anthony S. Guadadiello, Rita Pane, and Joseph Doria.
• A small intimate ceremony will take place in the Newport residential community at 9 a.m. Residents and visitors can place memorial pillar candles and flowers on Newport’s 9/11 Memorial. Candles and flowers will be available to all at Newport Town Square (corner of Town Square Place and River Drive South).
• The city is holding its annual 9/11 ceremony from 8 a.m. – 11 a.m. at Exchange Place that includes the reading of the names of all the Jersey City residents who died that day.