A committee made up of local residents, artists and family members of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack has officially selected the design concept for a permanent memorial.
The memorial for Pier A park on the south waterfront is called “Hoboken Island.” The concept comes from the FLOW Group, which brings together five award-winning professionals from art, architecture, engineering and lighting design.
FLOW proposed a freestanding island that juts off the northwest corner of Pier A. The island will be connected to the pier by a “narrative wall” and a footbridge, according to officials from the 9/11 Memorial Fund.
The wall will be inscribed with first-person accounts of Sept. 11, including the experiences of Hoboken observers, volunteers, medical triage personnel, and family members. The words of victims will also appear. In the middle of the island, the designers will put a “tidal well,” or a hole in the island through which people can look at the river. The well will be circled with cast glass containing the names of Hoboken’s 57 victims. At night, the tidal well will be illuminated and visible from lower Manhattan.
The members of the FLOW Group are artist Janet Echelman, architect Jeanne Gang, aeronautical engineer Peter Heppel, structural engineer Aine Brazil, and architectural lighting designer Domingo Gonzalez.
The process
The Hoboken Sept. 11 Memorial Fund received more than 100 proposals, which were whittled down to 10 semi-finalists by a jury of professional architects, artists and educators.
“On behalf of the Memorial Fund committee and all Hoboken residents, we would like to thank every one of the talented artists and designers who came forward to be part of this process,” said Memorial Fund co-chairs Lisa Frigand and Rick Evans in a written statement recently. “We congratulate the FLOW Group on being selected to design the Hoboken 9/11 memorial, and we look forward to working with the individuals, organizations, and businesses in and around Hoboken to raise the necessary remaining funds to make the vision of Hoboken Island a reality.”
Mayor David Roberts said that the selection of a design team is an important milestone in a process that began in December of 2001.
“Sept. 11 was a painful day for Hoboken and our nation,” said Roberts. “This memorial is a very important element in the healing process, and a lasting monument to the friends and loved ones we lost.”
In addition to raising more than $30,000 through a grassroots mailing and through community fundraisers, the Memorial Fund recently received a $500,000 state grant.
The project is expected to cost between $600,000 and $750,000, which means that the Memorial Fund is still accepting donations, according to city spokesperson Bill Campbell.
The designers speak
Gang, principal of Studio Gang Architects, said the island provides ample opportunity for reflection. “Hoboken Island offers a place for rest and contemplation amidst unobstructed views of the former towers and of Hoboken,” said Gang, who designed the Starlight Theater with a kinetic roof in Rockford, Il. “We designed this with people in mind, using materials like wood and cast glass, which are warm and invite you to touch them.” Echelman said that the design partially came from her own experience on Sept. 11.
“The initial idea for an island with a hole cut out of its center grew from my personal experience of the irreparable loss after Sept. 11,”she said. “For Hoboken’s memorial; I wanted to reconnect people with the larger cycles of nature. So when you look down into the island’s center, you look directly into the belly of the Hudson, seeing your own reflection as part of the larger flow of a living river.”
Brazil, a Hoboken resident and managing principal of Thornton Tomasetti Engineers, has extensive experience in the design and construction of high-rise offices, hotels, hospitals, air-rights projects with long span transfer systems and other public works.
Gonzalez illuminated the NYC Police Memorial, Terminal One at JFK Airport, and the George Washington Bridge. Heppel has engineered America’s Cup sails, tensile fabric airlocks for NASA, and the Millennium Tower in Glasgow, which rotates in the wind.
For information on the design or how to donate, visit the Memorial Fund’s web site www.hoboken911.com or call City Hall at (201) 420-2222.