STNMTZ_20141107_44400.tif | George Steinmetz

The 9/11 Memorial in New York City on an autumn afternoon with peak fall color.

There were 5,201 submissions to the 2003 design competition for the National September 11 Memorial, and in selecting Michael Arad’s and Peter Walker’s, the jury singled out the one aspect of their plan that is inescapable in views from above: “‘Reflecting Absence’ has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of our loss.” How starkly this message is communicated depends on the time of year: when the plaza’s groves of sweetgum and swamp white oaks are in leaf, a sense of life flickers across the space. The memorial opened in 2011, and the underground 9/11 Memorial Museum, entered through a pavilion designed by Snøhetta, in 2014.

Filename: STNMTZ_20141107_44400.tif
Copyright: ©2014 George Steinmetz
Image Size: 5760x3840 / 63.3MB; New York City aerial downtown Manhattan 9/11 Memorial 9/11 Memorial Museum World Trade Towers World Trade Center
Contained in galleries: New York Air

The 9/11 Memorial in New York City on an autumn afternoon with peak fall color.<br />
<br />
There were 5,201 submissions to the 2003 design competition for the National September 11 Memorial, and in selecting Michael Arad’s and Peter Walker’s, the jury singled out the one aspect of their plan that is inescapable in views from above: “‘Reflecting Absence’ has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of our loss.” How starkly this message is communicated depends on the time of year: when the plaza’s groves of sweetgum and swamp white oaks are in leaf, a sense of life flickers across the space. The memorial opened in 2011, and the underground 9/11 Memorial Museum, entered through a pavilion designed by Snøhetta, in 2014.