|
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an open
competition to select a design for an outdoor memorial on the grounds
of the Pentagon, Arlington, Va., to honor the victims of the September
11 attack at that building.
The corps also made public its site selection for
the memorial. It will be built in what is now being used as the staging
area for the Phoenix Project, the Pentagon reconstruction effort for the
section of the building that was most severely damaged by American Airlines
Flight 77. The corps said some construction support activities would be
moved to accommodate the development of the memorial site. Program officials
are planning for a dedication ceremony at the anniversary of the attacks.
"We
will hold a wide-open and fair competition for a concept design as part
of our commitment to the victims, their families, and the American people,"
said Col. Charles J. Fiala Jr., the Corps of Engineers' Baltimore district
engineer.
The Pentagon Memorial Design Competition will be
a two-stage contest. First, a nine-member jury will choose several semifinalists.
Those selected will then be able to further develop their concepts before
a final decision is made. Competition packages will be available in early
June.
Reed Kroloff, former editor in chief of Architecture
magazine, and Mark Robbins, design director of the National Endowment
for the Arts, but who is working with the corps as an individual, are
helping the corps facilitate the competition.
Using the Oklahoma City Memorial design competition
as a model, planners say any individual or team may submit a proposal.
Corps Program Manager Carol Anderson-Austra said she knows that firms
and people with "enormous talent" will want to submit plans,
but hopes that a simple process will ensure access for nonprofessionals.
"We don't want to lose a great idea," she said. She also noted
that in Oklahoma City, the sheer number and diversity of proposals into
which people put their hearts gave the victims and families of victims
great comfort.
The corps is still working to finalize the jury,
which will include a representatives from academia, two landscape architects,
two architects, an artists, a family member, and two noted public representatives,
Anderson-Austra said. So far, three jury members have been confirmed:
Karen Van Lengen, dean of the school of architecture at the University
of Virginia and a practicing architect; Walter Hood, associate professor
of landscape architecture and chair, University of California, Berkeley;
and Mary Margaret Jones, a principal at Hargreaves Associates, San Francisco
and Cambridge, and a visiting critic in landscape architecture at the
Harvard Design School. Anderson-Austra, a landscape architect herself,
said memorial planners want the jury to represent a broad range of professional
qualifications, ages, and race.
Site
selection
A Family Steering Committee, composed of family members representing victims
from the building and the plane, was involved in an evaluation of 10 potential
sites identified by the corps. Anderson-Austra said the memorial will
be open to the public. She said it was important to the families to have
visual access to the point of impact, where their loved ones had their
last conscious moments: "Strong family support for the site weighed
heavily with Pentagon officials involved with the site selection."
A focus group was convened in October and includes
officials from the corps, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Pentagon
Office of Family Policy, Washington Headquarters Service, the Pentagon
Renovation Program, the four military services, the National Capital Planning
Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and Arlington National Cemetery.
In November, corps officials began meeting with the Family Steering Committee.
This year, the project team and the steering committee
hosted the first of a series of general family meetings to introduce themselves,
explain the planning process, present the 10 potential memorial sites,
and obtain input from all the families. Anderson-Austra said she and her
staff continue to be in touch with the families by phone, fax, and email,
so that corps personnel can incorporate their ideas and so they feel that
they are part of the planning process.
Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved.
|
|
|