20070107
December 15, 2006
Mr. Joseph Daniels
President and CEO of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation
One Liberty Place, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10006
Dear Mr. Daniels:
THE NEWLY PROPOSED VICTIMS' NAMES ARRANGEMENT FOR THE WTC MEMORIAL
In continuing to follow with interest the development of the WTC Memorial, and after having had the honor of being named Finalists by the WTC Memorial Design Competition Jury, we were delighted to learn of the new concept announced by Mayor Bloomberg for the arrangement of the victims' names.
We believe it to be a sensitive design, and one decidedly humane toward the victims and those of us that remember and honor them, as it preserves the immediacy and abruptness of the way so many lives, while in the course of their day, were cut short on that September morning. Significantly, it offers the families places to go as well as spaces to identify with the ones they mourn.
However, we cannot help but point out a resemblance between the new proposed design and part of our design "Passages of Light: The Memorial Cloud". The new arrangement, which includes 10 groupings, is apparently based on the physical location of the victim on the WTC site at the approximate time of his or her death. The placement of victims' names according to location was precisely the concept behind our proposed placement of names that we presented to the Jury in January 2004.
We offer below the paragraph from our proposal which describes our design of the arrangement of names of victims:
"Together, the names form a design that we term the "Pompeii Scheme," because it represents individuals equally in the course of their lives, cut short by the attacks. A name appears near those of the people with whom he or she died. For example, the approximately 1400 individuals who perished in Tower One define the largest field of lights. This field is continuous with the group of approximately 600 who died in the second tower. The design's appearance reflects the cloud's topology of cupolas. A "Line of Rescuers" runs through both groups, where Firefighters, Police, and ordained and medical people can be represented." (BBC / Baurmann Brooks Coersmeier, January 2004)
Following is a quote from the press release of the Memorial Foundation of December 13, 2006:
"Names placed at the North Pool will include two groupings: those who worked at or were visiting Tower 1 on September 11th, 2001; and individuals who lost their lives on Flight 11 which crashed into Tower 1. A total of 1,518 names will be placed at the North Pool.
The South Pool will include the other eight groupings: names of individuals who worked at or were visiting Tower 2; individuals who died on Flight 175 which hit Tower 2; those who died in the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, PA; those who died on Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon; those who died at the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001; those killed in the February 26, 1993 bombing; the first responders; and those whose specific location when they perished is not known. A total of 1,461 names will be arranged around the South Pool.
First responders will be grouped together on the South Pool by command, precinct, or company as appropriate (eg. Ladder 24) so that those lost from the New York City Fire Department, the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department, and Court Officers can be listed together. The ranks of individual first responders will not be listed." (Press Release Memorial Foundation of December 13, 2006)
There is an obvious and profound similarity between the newly selected arrangement and the one we proposed to the Jury.
In addition, the paragraph below, also from the official press release, suggests that the new design has been "developed" from Michael Arad's and Peter Walker's design of "meaningful adjacencies."
"DESIGN CONCEPT FOR ARRANGEMENT OF VICTIMS' NAMES SELECTED
In Memorial Designer Michael Arad's original scheme to place the names of the deceased in no discernible order, he referred to creating "meaningful adjacencies" within the names to be inscribed on the North and South Pools. The idea for meaningful adjacencies has now been further developed into a design concept of ten identified groupings, which will tell the story of where people were during the September 11th attacks and grouping together the victims from the
1993 World Trade Center bombing. With meaningful adjacencies, the names of the deceased appear to be in no discernible order, reflecting the haphazard brutality of the deaths, but would nonetheless allow, for example, siblings and colleagues who perished together at the site to have their names listed side-by- side." (Press Release Memorial Foundation of December 13, 2006)
In our recollection, neither the Arad/Walker name layout design nor ours was articulated until, at the earliest, the Finalist phase of the Competition. To be precise, Michael Arad's original statement does not refer to "creating 'meaningful adjacencies,'" as the press release states. In fact he clearly states the contrary:
"The names of the deceased will be arranged in no particular order around the pools. After carefully considering different arrangements, I have found that any arrangement that tries to impose meaning through physical adjacency will cause grief and anguish to people who might be excluded from that process, furthering the sense of loss that they are already suffering.
The haphazard brutality of the attacks is reflected in the arrangement of names, and no attempt is made to impose order upon this suffering. The selfless sacrifices of rescue workers could be acknowledged with their agency's insignia next to their names.
Visitors to the site, including family members and friends of the deceased, would be guided by on-site staff or a printed directory to the specific location of each name. For those whose deceased were never physically identified, the location of the name marks a spot that is their own." (Michael Arad and Peter Walker, Reflecting Absence, January 2004)
Similarly, we do not recall any of the other 6 Finalists suggesting a scheme similar to ours, nor to the newly selected one. We find it at least a point of professional ethics to suggest that this new selected scheme is possibly derived from our first runner-up design.
More importantly, we feel the need to bring this matter to your attention because, if it is the case that this new scheme is indebted to our Finalist proposal, then we would be honored to be able to contribute something to the WTC Memorial and the memory of the victims. Accordingly, this contribution should be acknowledged, along with those of all the many generous, talented, and devoted people and groups who have contributed so much already.
For the full documentation of our design proposal, please refer to our website: www.bbcaa.com Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
Yours sincerely,
Gisela Baurmann
Sawad Brooks
Jonas Coersmeier
BBC / Baurmann Brooks Coersmeier
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letter as .pdf
.: Jonas 8:38 PM
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