|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Athena Tacha, Terrorist Bomb Memorial; Finalist's proposal, 1993 |
|
In 1993, a first terrorist attack against the World Trade Center opened an enormous hole between the foundations of the two towers and killed six people. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had a competition to commemorate the event. I was one of the finalists, and Elyn Zimmerman won. My proposal for that memorial was a somber, yet contemplative environment. Located over the spot where the major explosion took place, it consisted of a black granite pavement on which would be sandblasted a photographic view representing the underground "crater" after the explosion. On its dark center an inscription would record the event.* Six clusters of grey slate rocks emerged from the image's "rubble" like cenotaphs of the dead victims, each inscribed with a name. The pavement's highly enlarged dotted photograph would almost look like an abstract pattern at ground-level, but would re-assemble visually into a clear image when viewed from above (e.g., from the North Tower). That proposal, with the image of the torn out foundations seems now like a premonition of what was to come on September 11, 2001: the immeasurable gap from the collapse of both towers. *IN MEMORY OF SIX ADULTS AND AN UNBORN CHILD WHO WERE KILLED FROM THE EXPLOSION OF A TERRORIST BOMB UNDER THIS SITE ON FEBRUARY 26, 1993. |
|
|
|
