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"The design strives to make visible what is absent. The primary responsibility we have is to those we lost that day."
- Michael Arad, Reflecting Absence Architect

Memorial & Museum

The World Trade Center (WTC) Memorial design, Reflecting Absence, will consist of two voids on the footprints of the original Twin Towers. Surrounded by a landscaped plaza filled with oak trees, each void will feature rings of cascading water falling into illuminated reflecting pools. The names of the 2,979 who perished in the September 11th attacks in New York City, Washington, DC; and Pennsylvania and the February 1993 WTC bombing will be inscribed around the edge of the memorial waterfalls.

Reflecting Absence was created by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker and selected from a design competition that drew more than 5,200 entrants from 63 nations.

Complementing the memorial, a state-of-the art museum designed by Davis Brody Bond will offer visitors an opportunity to deepen their experience at the site. Accessed through an entry pavilion designed by Snøhetta, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum will help facilitate an encounter with both the enormity of the loss and the triumph of the human spirit that are at the heart of 9/11. Visitors also will be able to view a section of the massive slurry wall that held back the Hudson River during the attacks.

Construction to build the National September 11 Memorial & Museum began in March 2006.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, formerly known as the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, is the not-for-profit corporation that began operations in 2005 to realize the memorial quadrant at the WTC site. As owner of the memorial and museum, the Foundation is responsible for capital and annual fundraising, finalizing and maintaining the integrity of project design, programming of the memorial and museum, and ongoing operations.

To date, the foundation has raised more than $300 million towards its $350 million fundraising goal to support capital and planning costs and start an endowment. The foundation has received more than 33,800 contributions from all 50 states and 25 countries. The foundation is receiving $250 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). To contribute to the construction of the memorial, please click here.