WTC Memorial

"Reflecting Absence," Michael Arad's design for the Sept. 11 victim's memorial, was chosen in a contest that brought over 5,000 entries. Arad collaborated with landscape artist Peter Walker to produce this final plan, featuring lush greenery and park plazas, with sunken reflecting pools that mark the collapsed towers' footprints.

An aerial view, from the southeast looking north, of the revised design for the memorial. The memorial pays tribute to the victims of Sept. 11 and the six people who died in the 1993 trade center bombing.

A view of the bedrock in the north footprint. The design will include an underground museum displaying artifacts from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and a cultural center at the northeast corner of the site.

Another view of the revised design. In the original, the pools were interspersed with a scattering of pine trees, which Arad said were intended to reflect the height of the towers. But the pines have now been replaced with groves of trees, to symbolize life and rebirth.

Another view of the winning submission, showing a section of the waterfall and reflective pool.

Keep clicking to see the other top designs not chosen in the competition.

Garden of Lights

By Pierre David with Sean Corriel and Jessica Kmetovic: "In the garden of lights we can look down the path of each light. We see the name inscribed in stone and the light from the shining star. A cloud passes over the city; it is a shadow on the garden, a sparkle in the stars below, a glimmer on the altar, a flicker in the soul."

Votives in Suspension

By Norman Lee and Michael Lewis: "Visitors will descend down a stairway or lift system into each sanctuary... Here they will witness an expansive field of votive lights... The votives, each representing a victim of the terrorist attacks, hang down on cables from the sanctuary ceiling just above a reflecting pool."

Passages of Light

By Gisela Baurmann, Sawad Brooks and Jonas Coersmeier: "...each of the 2,982 victims is represented by a... circle of light embedded into the floor, which illuminates the engraved name of the individual victim but also projects a subtle ray of light upward into the cloud. During the day, the cloud... channels daylight downward onto the names."

Inversion Of Light

By Toshio Sasaki: "The work I envision for the site will consist of the universal elements of light, water, air, and earth."

Lower Waters

By Bradley Campbell and Matthias Neumann: "Water and light symbolize life, rejuvenation and rebirth. By using water and light as key elements of the design and by bringing people directly to the site of the attacks, we hope that visitors will remember not only the loss of life but also the sanctity of life that we live each day."

Dual Memory

By Brian Strawn and Karla Sierralta: "2,982 light portals shine over the "Individual Memory Footprint", where the North Tower of the WTC once stood... Evolving images are reflected as water flows down the walls that support the plane of water above. On glass and stone, the names are revealed."

Suspending Memory

By Joseph Karadin with Hsin-Yi Wu: "The lives lost on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, collectively form the foundation of two memorial gardens rising from where the WTC towers once stood. Each victim is manifested as a... single column helping support one of two island gardens."