Final Design Announced:
http://www.flight93memorialproject.org/memorial_design_finalist.asp

Design Announcement

The design for the permanent Memorial for Flight 93 was announced on September 7, 2005 amid overwhelming support from the Families of Flight 93 and the various partner organizations who are contributing to make the Memorial a reality. The announcement was made in Washington, D.C., which is believed to be the target for the fourth terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, when Flight 93 crashed into a reclaimed strip mine in rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

Flight 93 National Memorial partner organizations include the Families of Flight 93, the Flight 93 Memorial Task Force, the Flight 93 Advisory Commission and the National Park Service.

The Memorial design was selected by the 15-member Stage II Jury comprised of design professionals, community leaders and family members. The Memorial will be constructed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at the current temporary memorial site. The National Memorial was established by Congress to honor the heroism, courage and enduring sacrifice of the 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93. The Memorial honors the passengers and crew members, who, on September 11, 2001, sacrificed their lives to thwart an attack on our nation’s capital.

“The selection of the final design moves us one step closer to memorializing this extraordinary group of heroes,” said Hamilton Peterson, president of the Families of Flight 93. “We will forever honor their efforts and revere this hallowed ground as the final resting place for the passengers and crew members of Flight 93.”

In September 2004 a two-stage International Design Competition was launched, providing professionals in the design disciplines as well as the general public an opportunity to present design ideas for the memorial expression. The competition received more than 1,000 entries of design concepts, including narrative and graphic descriptions for the Flight 93 National Memorial. The competition was funded through the generous support of the Heinz Endowments and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The selected Memorial was designed by Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles, California with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects of Charlottesville, Virginia. Specializing in architecture, urban design and interiors, Paul Murdoch Architects’ experience includes master planning, architecture and interior architecture for institutional, governmental, commercial and residential building types. Nelson Byrd Woltz provides a broad range of landscape architectural design services including town, corporate, residential and park planning in the United States and abroad.

The Stage I Jury, comprised of nationally recognized architecture and design practitioners, public
art experts, educators, design journalists, family members and representatives of the Partners of

Flight 93, reviewed all design submissions and made recommendations for finalists to participate
in Stage II of the competition. In Stage II finalists refined entries and explained the spatial, material and symbolic attributes of their concepts. The Stage II Jury convened August 1-3 to select the final design for the Flight 93 National Memorial.

Entrance

Tall enough to be seen from the highway, the tower of voices heroically marks the entry to and exit from the Park. Set on a planted mound in a clearing, within resonating rings of White Pines, the Tower houses forty white aluminum wind chimes. The continuing songs of chimes in the wind celebrate a living memory of those who are honored. The outside of the curved concrete tower wall is finished with white glass mosaic tiles to create a reflective, ephemeral quality, and blue plaster inside to evoke the sky. At night, the Tower interior is evenly grazed with light and the exterior illuminated as a beacon. Near the Tower there is parking, public restrooms and an information/orientation kiosk.

The Bowl

Through the gesture of embrace, a curving landform formally designates the edge of the Bowl. The crescent of embrace enhances the form and monumental scale of the Bowl to commemorate the heroic actions of the passengers and crew of Flight 93. An allee of Red Maple trees gently descends around the Bowl, crossing the wetlands, to the focal point of the Bowl, the Sacred Ground. Behind the walkway occur forty groves of Sugar and Red Maples and a ring road that leads to parking near the Sacred Ground. Visitors can formally start their walk along the Crescent by ascending a ramp that allows views into the Visitor Center. Pedestrian trails through the Bowl offer a variety of entrance and exit routes to and from the Sacred Ground. Lighting at night supports the Crescent through recessed lights in the radiating markers that face the Bowl. Benches along the allee have a recessed source to illuminate the path and each of their radiating extensions through the groves are terminated at the ring road with a pole-mounted downlight.

The main entrance to the Bowl occurs through the portal, at the western end of the Crescent. Within warm-toned concrete walls, textured like local cabins, the Portal frames the sky along the path of Flight 93 to the Crash Site. A black slate walkway leads visitors through the first wall into the Portal Plaza featuring Red Maple trees. Marking the Flight Path, the walkway extends through the Plaza and a second wall portal to give visitors their first look at the expanse of the Bowl and the Crash Site below. At the end of this path is a sloped glass plaque inscribed with the Mission Statement. At night the Flight Path is illuminated with recessed in-grade linear blue lines of gentle light that are perpendicular to the path flow to foster orientation and a rhythm of movement. The glass memorial plaque is edge-lighted from the base of the panel, allowing the text and its meanings to glow and radiate light.

The end of the Portal Plaza is open; giving a feeling of release to the overall Crescent. From the Plaza, the public can enter the Visitor Center that is integrated within the landform and walls of the Crescent. The Visitor Center is the interpretive and educational hub of the Park; featuring exhibits about the history of the site, Flight 93, the passengers and crew, and artifacts that have been left at the site, including the Temporary Memorial that is removed. Here, visitors are able to leave written tributes. At night, the Visitor Center provides a lantern-like image by means of diffuse, glowing light through an etched glass enclosure.

Sacred Ground

The Sacred Ground is the final resting place of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 and holds the everlasting memory of their courage. A black slate plaza and sloped wall form a front to the Sacred Ground. From here the public can view into the Crash Site. Within the sloped wall, in front of benches at each end of the plaza, are niches to accommodate remembrances from visitors. To prevent public intrusion, a vertical drop of 12 feet occurs behind the sloped wall. The lower area then slopes up to the edge of the Sacred Ground field. The field is planted with low maintenance grasses; bulbs that include White Crocus, blooming white in Spring and Fall, Camassia, that blooms blue during Memorial Day, Resurrection Flower, that blooms white or red in late Summer and Fall; and the perennials Rudbeckia, which blooms yellow-orange in September, and Indian Blanket Flower, blooming red in Summer.



A white stone slab on the Flight Path provides entry for families to the Sacred Ground. Offset concrete walls frame a gate, opened only for ceremonies or family visits. The western wall holds a folded band of polished, translucent white marble with the forty names inscribed in alphabetical order and the date of September 11, 2001. This marble band is backlighted at night from within the wall. A cluster of American Beech trees at the walls and bench provide shade and shelter and are uplighted to foster intimacy and indirect illumination of the area. As at the Portal, the Flight Path is illuminated with recessed in-grade linear blue lines of gentle light perpendicular to the path. The fence line is changed to include the existing earth mound within the Sacred Ground for family seating and contemplation. The Hemlock Grove and cabins are preserved to provide solitude and shelter to family visitors.

This link provides the actual boards in presentation (http://www.flight93memorialproject.org/crescent_of_embrace.asp).

Paul Murdoch home page (http://www.paulmurdocharchitects.com/)

...many links of his page don't work ? :confused:

Maybe from so much use, I noticed the memorial site crashes also sometimes.

Keeping with the rest of the memorial designs and competitions, the winning entry for the FLIGHT 93 memorial has also been revised.

From the AP

By JENNIFER C. YATES, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 30,12:26 PM ET

PITTSBURGH - 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.

Flight 93 was flying to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when it became the last of four planes hijacked that day and the only one not to kill anyone on the ground. The official 9/11 Commission report said the hijackers crashed it as passengers, aware of the previous hijackings, tried to take control of the cockpit. The crash site is about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The original design was selected by a jury of 15 made up of design professionals and family and community members and was narrowed down from a pool of 1,011. A projected date for the opening has not been set.