All 5,201 entries for the World Trade Center Memorial competition now are available in a virtual exhibit. Viewers can search for submissions by submitters’ names, state or country, or original submission number. The online exhibit also allows visitors to enlarge the color images for a closer view.

The exhibit documents the record response to the call for entries to the design competition. “This is an amazing collection of heartfelt contributions from around the globe, ranging from the simplest drawings to very complex designs,” said John C. Whitehead, chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Teams and individuals from 63 nations and 49 states participated in the competition. “So much time and effort went into the 5,201 proposals submitted for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition that they deserve to be on exhibit. The proposals show an enormous amount of creativity and illustrate the multitude of ways we as human beings have handled the challenge placed in front of us, to remember, understand, and learn from the events of September 11, 2001,” noted New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The majority of designs, 4,392, came from the U.S., but the entries represent a wide swath of nations, from Albania and Algeria to the United Kingdom and Venezuela.

A grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation funded the design competition and Web site. A 13-member memorial jury evaluated all 5,201 proposals in a two-stage process and ultimately selected “Reflecting Absence,” by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, in which reflecting pools mark the footprints of the Twin Towers. Their plan will list the victims’ names and offer lush landscaping, benches, and water elements that pay tribute to the victims of the 2001 attacks and the six people who died in the 1993 bombing of the trade center.

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