Results tagged “worldtradecentermemorial”

Acting on a dare, a drunk Harvard Law School grad allegedly set fire to a chapel yesterday that houses the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The perp — identified as 26-year-old Brian Schroeder — broke into Memorial Park near the corner of First Avenue and East 30th Street and set the blaze at around 9 am. The fire did not get to the remains, which are kept in climate-controlled containers awaiting advances in DNA technology that might allow them to be identified, but notes, photos, flowers, and other mementos inside the white-tented sanctuary were either stolen or burned. Schroeder turned himself in to police last night.

       

Nearly six years ago, in November 2003, a design called Reflecting Absence, by NYC Housing Authority architect Michael Arad, was selected as one of the finalists for the World Trade Center Memorial. His design featured two pools in the footprints of the WTC's towers, with waterfalls cascading down their sides, and in January 2004, the design, revised with landscape designer Peter Walker, was chosen as the winning design. Today, the Port Authority says the Memorial is slated to open on September 11, 2011, in time for the tenth anniversary. We spoke to Arad, now a partner at Handel Architects, for a few minutes yesterday and asked about the long road the project has taken.

      

At a NY State Assembly hearing yesterday, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward testified, "We are on track to meet the commitment we made in October to open the Memorial Plaza by the 10th Anniversary of September 11th."

Sure, the Port Authority has promised that the World Trade Center Memorial will be open for 10th anniversary events, but it will close for another year of construction right after. Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward, who just last week released "probabilistic" timelines for various Ground Zero projects, testified in front of the City Council and revealed that the memorial's plaza wouldn't open until late 2012. And when City Councilman Alan Gerson asked, "Will any part of the site be generally open to the public to simply walk into without prescheduling?" Ward replied it would be "unlikely." Maybe by the 15th anniversary, then?

Once planned to open on September 11, 2009, now the NY Times reports constructions workers "will begin erecting the steel to frame" the World Trade Center Memorial. Mayor Bloomberg, who is the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said, "We’ve worked hard to get the memorial back on track and on budget, and to raise necessary funding from many generous donors. Now we must all ensure it is our collective top priority, so that it’s open by the 10th anniversary.” The design by Michael Arad was chosen in 2004; the plans were altered when estimates came in the $1 billion ballpark. The public has a chance to write messages on some steel beams over the next week and a half.

A Long Island City concrete firm won a contract to provide $103 million worth of "slabs, decks, walls and enclosures" for the September 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site. According to the NY Times, Navillus Contracting will be responsible for 45,000 cubic yards of concrete for the memorial itself as well as "adjacent underground areas" and the Port Authority's executive director Anthony Shorris said, "This contract will move us to the next level, allowing the memorial to begin to take form and rise to street level."

Mayor MIchael Bloomberg's largess makes him the country's seventh biggest charitable donor. The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Top 50 Donor List (less sexy than the Forbes list, but possibly more worthy) notes he committed $205 million to various institutions last year.

It looks like the World Trade Center Memorial has hit a delay. Originally scheduled to open on September 11, 2009, the Port Authority said today that it won't be ready until 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The delays only came to light after construction began and the agency could give a more realistic timeline. A Port Authority spokeswoman said, "We see the reality, and want to operate on responsible timelines. We'll work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible."

Mayor Bloomberg's generosity has been noted from educational institutions (like his alma mater Johns Hopkins) and even city organizations (like the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation). He gave staffers on his re-election campaign payouts as big as $300,000-400,000. And when Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff announced he would leave City Hall to become president of the mayor's business, Bloomberg LP, it suggested that the Mayor rewarded staffers he trusts. Well, the NY Times now looks at how some Bloomberg aides' salaries have grown since taking the government jobs in City Hall.

Arno Herwerth, the Long Island man who the DMV rejected his GETOSAMA vanity plate, then sued them now wants to have a 9-11 commemorative license plate available to the Empire State’s motorists – something several other states have for their drivers. However, in New York then Governor George Elmer Patkai vetoed the idea in 2006 and put the brakes on any new optional license plates thanks to a pro-life groups suing states, including New...

New York City was amply represented during last night's National Design Awards at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Mayor Bloomberg visited the Shanksville, Pennsylvania site where Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001. The Mayor has headed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation (formerly the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation) ever since last October, and had been traveling across the country to raise money for the memorial.

Staten Island's World Trade Center Memorial, Postcards, was defaced yesterday. The memorial has plaques of Staten Island's 1993 and 2001 attacks victims' names; the plaques also has victims' profiles water-jet-cut on them. The plaques of Cantor Fitzgerald employee Jason DeFazio and firefighter Jeremy Olsen were destroyed. Olsen's family had been planning on visiting the memorial today, because it would have been Jeremy's 37th birthday.

The NY Times takes a careful, detailed look at the rising Museum of Arts and Design building at 2 Columbus Circle more than two years after preservationists failed to stop plans to radically alter the 1964 Edward Durell Stone building.

The city's medical examiner's office classified that a woman's death was due to dust from the World Trade Center wreckage dust. Staten Island resident Felicia Dunn-Jones, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education with a husband and two children, was covered in dust on September 11, 2001 from the first collapse. She later developed sarcoidosis and died on February 10, 2002. Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch wrote in a letter, "It is likely, with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt, that exposure to WTC dust was harmful to [Ms. Dunn-Jones] ... and that exposure to World Trade Center Dust on 9/11/01 was contributory to her death. The manner of death will be changed from natural to homicide."

Moving onto a new job is always exciting - and it's always another opportunity to have a farewell party from your old one. But it seems that partying got the better of former deputy commissioner of the Community Assistance Unit Christopher Coffey. The Daily News reports that Coffey was pulled over in his car after the police got a call about a "rowdy drunk" - apparently Coffey had been "stumbling around and pounding on cars" after leaving a bar at the Maritime Hotel.

We image Mayor Bloomberg had some talking-to with the new governor! A few days ago, Governor Eliot Spitzer dipped his toe into the dispute about how victims' names would be arrange at the World Trade Center Memorial.

We were happy to read in the NY Post that the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation turned down a $30,000 donation from National Collector's Mint. The WTC Memorial Foundation said, "We weren't comfortable [with the donations] because of the history," proving that even though the foundation needs donors, no one wants money from horrible companies trying to profit from the tragedy.

Politicians believe more names need to be mentioned at the World Trade Center Memorial Museum. Assemblyman Michael Gianaris of Queens and State Senator Marty Golden of Brooklyn will be introducing a bill that would ask that the names of deceased Ground Zero workers be included.

Families of some September 11 victims have started an advertising campaign to express their unhappiness over the planned naming scheme for the World Trade Center Memorial. Last December, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the names of victims would be grouped by company or association. However, civilian employees would not have their employers listed while city workers, like firefighters, would have their companies listed.

Here is part two of our semi-chronological look back at the top stories this past year (here is part one):

Officials announced that victims names will be arranged at the World Trade Center Memorial, instead of being placed randomly. WTC Memorial designer Michael Arad's original plan was for a random listing of victims. From his winning submission:

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.

Continue reading "Names Will Be Organized on World Trade Center Memorial "

We always knew Mayor Bloomberg was a busy guy, but a NY Times article today makes him seem especially crunched for time. The article's first sentence says it all:

New York City’s bid to land the 2008 Democratic National Convention is in jeopardy because Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is spread so thin with fund-raising commitments that he may not be able to raise the money from private donors needed to pay for it, an official said on Thursday.

This morning, workers will take down the iron cross at Ground Zero and prepare to move it to St. Peter's Church this afternoon. There will be a small ceremony for the cross's transfer, and St. Peter's will be its home until the World Trade Center Memorial Museum is open. If you're near the site, you may see a flatbed truck bringing the cross to St. Peter's around 2PM. WABC 7 explains the cross's history: "The two cast-iron beams left in the shape of a cross after the collapse of the Twin Towers were hoisted onto a 40-foot foundation on October 4th, 2001 and quickly became one of the best-known symbols of the site."

Government and World Trade Center Memorial Foundation officials tell the media that Mayor Bloomberg will become the head of the troubled foundation. Earlier this year, after the foundation stopped its fundraising efforts when estimated costs for the project spiraled out of control, Mayor Bloomberg wasn't very happy. And whadya know, he "secretly" donated $10 million to the foundation this summer - ain't that a coincidence, though at least the Mayor is putting his money where his mouth is. The appointment isn't official and already has some opposition, but Pataki said yesterday that if the Mayor did become the head, raising the millions and millions for the memorial might just be easier since he has "a proven success record at philanthropy." Yes, because Mayor Bling's got big pockets! But Mayor Bloomberg's Rolodex is pretty extensive, so it does make some sense.

- Thing you've got bocce balls? Then you should test your stuff this weekend at the 12th Annual Citywide Bocce Tournament. Over 200 bocce enthusiasts from around the New York City area will compete Saturday and Sunday to see who's got the best. The tournament is free and open to adults of all ages. The prelims are in four of the five boroughs (sorry Manhattanites) with the finals to be played Sunday in Pelham Bay Park.

Were you in NYC on September 11? There's a fascinating article in the NY Times about psychological and perceived differences between New Yorkers who were here on September 11, 2001 and those who were not. Lots of interesting quotes, like:

“I think for the people that seen it on TV, it is more painful than for the people who saw it here,” said Paolo Gonzalez, 29, who manages a parking lot under the Brooklyn Bridge and who saw the attack. “For the other people it was real. If you was here, when the buildings came down the only thing you were thinking was, ‘Run.’ ”

Continue reading "Knowing September 11 Firsthand and Not"

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has kicked off another phase in its marketing campaign to raise money for the memorial. Back in July, they introduced ads that said we needed the spontaneous memorials then and we need one (as in donating to one) now. The new ads come as we head to the fifth anniversary of September 11 - they ask "Where Were You When It Happened". There are TV, radio, and print ads - the TV and radio ads have real people saying where they were on that day. We wonder how effective the ads will be in driving donations - they are definitely conversation starters.

Hooray, the Port Authority has officially agreed to build the World Trade Center Memorial. Whether to take advantage of construction efficiencies or to just do what others seem unable to do (there's some advantage to being affiliated with the state), we just hope the memorial gets built at some point. But then there is the matter of the $170 million still needed for funds.