Filling the Voids
By: Stephanie Benney
I really don’t think I have to repaint the picture for you of a beautiful blue, early autumn sky on that morning – the perfect backdrop and the antithesis of the most heinous crime my generation has thus far come to know or speak of.
On Sunday, we honored those in remembrance, who lost their lives 10 years ago, September 11, 2001. In a singular moment in time, strangers from all over the globe became our martyrs and heroes. They sacrificed their lives for the continuance of ours – there is not a more selfless human act.
While the world kept turning and day after day passed since the terrorist attacks on our United States of America, we will never forget any of aspects of 9/11. It is not difficult to be jilted back into the grief, agony, anger or sheer disbelief of it all. Like any other trauma in life, we will always remember where we were, what we felt, what we thought and what we were doing when we first heard the news of the attacks.
As I sit at my favorite table in Starbucks in Bloomfield with my laptop on September 11, 2011, I watch passersby donning their Steelers garb and terrible towels hang from back pockets of men rushing home to watch the game accompanied by pizza boxes and bags full of Steelers Sunday snacks. It is reaffirmation that life goes on and healing is paramount. We somehow have to find a way to open our hearts to the good that has spawned from this horrific event.
The wreckage and holes in the Earth left in Lower Manhattan due to the collapse of the World Trade Center have now been transformed into the 9/11 Memorial for the attacks made on Shanksville, the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. It hosts two waterfalls, surrounded by bronze walls containing the names of those who died, and 416 oak trees in a forest-like setting.
Landscape architect, Peter Walker, of PWP Landscape Architecture joined Michael Arad of Handel Architects to create “Reflecting Absence”. Symbolism was used, so that the memorial could be understood universally. According to PWP, “Using a language similar to Michael Heizer’s North, East, South, West, the voids render absence visible. In this way, the overwhelming losses of September 11th are given permanent presence. Within the protected space of the forest, visitors will arrive at the two great voids with their thundering waterfalls. After viewing the victims’ names on the bronze parapets of the voids, visitors will move back to the city through the trees and take comfort from the soothing, life-affirming forest. The Memorial grove will resemble a “natural” forest, until visitors discover that the trees align to form arching corridors in one orientation. In this way, the grove expresses the shared patterns of nature and humanity.”
Swamp white oaks were selected for the memorial and were raised in a nursery in New Jersey for the past years to become acclimated to the local climate. The trees were grown in over-sized boxes, which had virtually no impact on the root systems during tree transport.
Incorporating the tree forest into the design of the 9/11 Memorial is obviously an extremely symbolic and Eco-progressive implementation. However, there were sustainability practices intact during the design and construction processes in terms of both material endurance and landscape.
Just as Pearl Harbor and the Vietnam Memorial, people will continue to pilgrim to the 9/11 Memorial searching for peace and understanding in their reflections – and hopefully they will attain this. And if they don’t, perhaps the “Survivor Tree” can help, for it will continue to speak it’s story and represents the fight within – in all of us.
Please share your 9/11 stories with www.BizChicks.org
Stephanie Benney is a “Sustainable Visionary” and also the new Pittsburgh Representative for Fuzed Marketing, where she helps companies increase their brand presence. stephaniebenney@yahoo.com