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| Flight 93 Memorial Redesigned |
| 2005-11-30 |
| Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday. The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, features most of the details of the original, which victims' relatives helped select after a worldwide design competition. But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a "Crescent of Embrace," a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees. After the original design was unveiled in September, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., criticized it in a letter to the National Park Service director, saying many questioned the shape "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam _ and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists." Paul Murdoch, president of Paul Murdoch Architects, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an "unfortunate diversion," but said they were sensitive to the concerns. In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes would welcome visitors to the site, where they could then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims' names inscribed. Gordon Felt, of Remsen, N.Y., whose brother, Edward Felt, died in the crash, said he didn't believe the original design honored the hijackers but is nonetheless pleased with the changes. "My concern is that we have a memorial that honors my brother and the 39 other brave Americans that were on Flight 93 in a respectful way that not only respects their lives but respects the topography of the land," Felt said Wednesday. In the Flight 93 National Memorial's newsletter, Murdoch described the new design as an "evolution" of what was announced two months ago, reflecting input from the public, the competition's jury and others. The circle enhances the earlier design by putting more emphasis on the crash site, officials said in the newsletter. A break in the trees will symbolize the path the plane took as it crashed. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 "Crescent of Embrace" or "Finger of Defiance"? You decide... |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-11-30 15:34 |
| #8 At the very least, eliminating any crescent symbology is a good start. I'm beginning to hope that this might become a global trend. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-30 14:35 |
| #7 The Flight 93 memorial should not be wind chimes and groves of maple trees and stuff like that. Hey, I love maple trees as much as the next person, but all this stuff is pablum, it is pure crap in this situation, and is not approptriate. We need something like a wall, with names of the dead passengers and crew listed, in columns. We need a fresco-like centerpiece of bronze that shows the scene of the Flight 93 people fighting back. Then some simple statement over or under the centerpiece pulling it all together. Think about the impact of the Iwo Jima memorial bronze statues on people who approach it. Crescent of Embrace my ass. This is a memorial to those people that did a great service to their fellow Americans, even though they knew that they were done for. In doing what they could to thwart the hijacking, they probably saved lives of hundreds or thousands of others. They ought to fire the existing architect and get some imaginative architectural design students to go and listen to the survivors of Flight 93 heroes and build something appropriate. The half-baked design is what you get when you involve the National Park Service in something like this. This is a memorial to a battle against terrorists, not an interpretive center. [/rant] |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-11-30 14:15 |
| #6 "Liberalism, far from expecting people not to fight back, is more at fault for not being tough enough when people do fight back unlawfully." Can you try this again? Only in English this time! JT |
| Posted by: Jeaper Threaper4347 2005-11-30 13:48 |
| #5 ptah - the hijackers were not liberals, but were part of an assault on all that liberalism stands for. Liberalism, far from expecting people not to fight back, is more at fault for not being tough enough when people do fight back unlawfully. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-11-30 13:29 |
| #4 JerseyMike, I'd prefer a statue of them having already broken in. ONe is screaming, getting his neck snapped by one passenger, while the other is glaring at the intruders with a look on his face that says, in that unmistakeably liberal look of offense, "How DARE you FIGHT BACK!" (I'm sure Aris can provide the PERFECT look that is required.) |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-11-30 13:13 |
| #3 Better than nothing, but... If the site doesn't contain the words "Let's roll" prominently somewhere it'll never get my vote. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2005-11-30 13:06 |
| #2 Crescent of embrace? 40 wind chimes?, 40 trees? All bullshit. How about a 40 foot high bronze statue of the passengers trying to breakdown the cockpit door. |
| Posted by: JerseyMike 2005-11-30 13:03 |
| #1 Koorosh Nehchiri, a colleague of Ed Felt's at BEA Systems, emailed us with this information and added: "He is mourned and remembered by family and friends alike as he was truly an example of a noble, kind, respectable and intelligent human being. ... Let us keep his memory alive as long as it is possible."] Ed Felt was a technical director for BEA Systems, a software firm in Liberty Corner, New Jersey. He was one of their "first employees, best engineers, and most respected and loved colleagues." Born in Utica, NY, he graduated from Colgate and Cornell universities. He had lived in Matawan, New Jersey for the past 20 years. He leaves behind a wife, Sandra Valdez Felt, two daughters, Adrienne, 14, and Kathryn, 11, his mother, two brothers -- Larry Felt of Syracuse and Gordon Felt of Remsen, NY -- three brothers-in-law, five sisters-in-law, five nieces and four nephews. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-11-30 12:46 |