By Design: New Amsterdam Pavilion and the September 11 Memorial
Innovative architectural details bring two Lower Manhattan icons to life.
The place: National September 11 Memorial, New York
The backstory: A sensitive tribute at a site that already evokes powerful emotion.
The beauty: The square footprints of the two fallen towers are recessed into the ground. Down their walls fall seamless cascades of water. At the centre of each resulting pool, the water then pours down another shaft of black granite that seems bottomless. Simplicity and understatement capture the enormity of what happened here. Architect Michael Arad called his design “Reflecting Absence.”
And nearby, don’t miss: Just blocks away, Trinity Church, opened in 1846, and its verdant churchyard are surrounded by splendid early skyscrapers. Most are in ornate classical styles—but not the delicately scalloped and sculpted 1930s Art Deco Bank of New York.
Next: New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion at Peter Minuit Plaza, New York
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