The Star Ledger
An unshared view of 9/11

Jersey City residents and others take issue with design for memorial
Friday, July 28, 2006
BY ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff

New Jersey's planned 9/11 memorial in Liberty State Park is designed to embrace the panorama of Lower Manhattan and Ground Zero, but critics, including the mayor of Jersey City, say the tribute will ruin the view.

"It destroys a natural attraction and a beautiful vista," said Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who recently asked Gov. Jon Corzine to consider a different spot in the park for the memorial.

Jersey City officials have been barraged with calls from residents since crews started dumping soil in the northeastern corner of the park several months ago, Healy said.

State officials say the 20-foot mound will be compacted into a rolling knoll up to 10 feet high in some places. Two stainless-steel walls will rise from it, 30 feet high and 200 feet long, bearing the names of the more than 700 New Jersey residents who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Some contend the memorial will be too big and will mar the view of Lower Manhattan from parts of the park. Some say the modern design will clash with the historic landmarks in the vicinity -- including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the late-1800s Central Railroad of New Jersey Train Terminal.

Sam Pesin, president of the 800-member volunteer group Friends of Liberty State Park, likens the view of Manhattan from the waterfront park to a "national shrine." He dismisses the state's claims that the process to choose the design was open to the public.

"We feel there should be a public meeting, and we want the hill design revised," Pesin said. "Certainly everyone understands the tremendous pain that the victims' families have, but this is an issue of democracy and a memorial that's going to last generations."

The memorial's design is meant to incorporate the sweeping view, said Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is overseeing the project.

The memorial is called Empty Sky, and its walls, set 16 feet apart, are meant to create a visual corridor focusing on the void where the World Trade Center's Twin Towers stood across the Hudson River.

In a letter sent yesterday to the Friends of Liberty State Park, Jackson wrote: "Since the memorial is located in the area of the park where many survivors were evacuated on that day, the New Jersey September 11th Memorial will invite the visitors to literally and metaphorically look to Manhattan's empty sky in memory as they look forward together as a community."

Jackson wrote that victims' family members and officials met in June to discuss Pesin's concerns and decided to keep the existing plan.

Jackson acknowledged architect Frederic Schwartz's design might "impact views from some portions" of the park, but she noted the park has a scenic public walkway more than a mile long.

This is not the first time the memorial has been criticized. Last summer, about two dozen families of 9/11 victims objected to the decision to list the names of the dead in random order.

Nor is the New Jersey memorial the first 9/11 tribute to stir controversy. Jersey City rejected a monument donated by Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli amid complaints it was too large and unsightly. Bayonne then took the 106-foot tall steel and bronze work, which features a 40-foot suspended teardrop.

Memorials in Manhattan, Shanksville, Pa., Westchester, N.Y., and New Jersey towns, including Sayreville, have been the subject of battles over everything from location and financing to size and symbols. Disputes include whether to use steel from Ground Zero.

James C. "Rick" Cahill of West Caldwell, who lost his 30-year-old son Patrick on 9/11, said he is disturbed by the controversies. He said he is upset the New Jersey memorial won't be ready for the fifth anniversary of the attacks. Officials said they are hoping construction of the $12million memorial will be done in 2007.

"I'm speechless about this," said Cahill, a member of the Families and Survivors Memorial Committee, which had been appointed by Gov. James E. McGreevey to choose the design. "Many of the 3,000 lost that day, their remains were not found. We have no burial place to go to. I'm planning to go to this memorial on my son's birthday and holidays with my cousins and family members. It will give them a place to see my son's name and overlook the vista of the site."

State officials yesterday disputed claims that the public didn't have a chance to comment on the design. They said there was ample opportunity for comment, including public meetings in 2004.

Pesin said he attended one of those meetings and that they didn't amount to a public hearing on the final design selection. He said he will push the governor's office to hold a hearing. Meanwhile, Pesin's group plans to hold an open meeting Aug. 16.

But Aileen Ryan Burden, a member of the families committee, said it's time to build the memorial. Burden lost her 45-year-old brother, John Joseph Ryan Jr., on 9/11.

"It allows you to remember what was there, sometimes with sorrow, and it allows you to look forward to what's going to be there in the coming years," she said.

_____________________________________________________

corrections by Sam Pesin on The Star Ledger story "An unshared view of 9/11:

• under the park map in story, it says, "New Jersey's planned 9/11 Memorial at Liberty State Park is designed to give visitors a view toward Ground Zero. Critics, however, argue the memorial actually will mar the panorama and obstruct the view of the skyline from the rest of the park." It should have said "skyline view at the NE corner of LSP."
• "State officials say the 20-foot mound will be compacted into a rolling knoll up to 10 feet high in some places." The current Hill may be around 14 feet and is planned to go down to 10 feet, approximately a couple of feet higher than existing fence. The concept image on the architect's website is http://www.schwartzarch.com/nj911memorial.htm
• "Some contend the memorial will be too big and will mar the view of Lower Manhattan from parts of the park. Some say the modern design will clash with the historic landmarks in the vicinity -- including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the late-1800s Central Railroad of New Jersey Train Terminal". Some people have said that it will clash with the 1889 Terminal, but I don't know of  people who have brought up Statue and Ellis Island in talking about the 2 huge stainless steel walls.
• "Jackson acknowledged architect Frederic Schwartz's design might "impact views from some portions" of the park, but she noted the park has a scenic public walkway more than a mile long." It's true that there are scenic views throughout the park, but this former Terminal Plaza area was the closest, best, most meaningful view of  Ground Zero and lower Manhattan. The dirt can be removed by machines to restore the sacred view.
• State officials yesterday disputed claims that the public didn't have a chance to comment on the design. They said there was ample opportunity for comment, including public meetings in 2004. Pesin said he attended one of those meetings and that they didn't amount to a public hearing on the final design selection. He said he will push the governor's office to hold a hearing. Meanwhile, Pesin's group plans to hold an open meeting Aug. 16."  This point was responded to in Friends reply letter to Commissioner Jackson: That is totally false. To be honest, Commissioner, it is a big lie. The Star Ledger story (7/28) repeats this big lie. There was absolutely no public meeting or public comment period on the 8 finalists for this major project in this urban state park.  There were open design competition orientation meetings for those who wanted to submit a design. A design competition orientation meeting is not a public meeting on the finalists. There was no public meeting at all after the "expert jury"  picked 8 designs from 320. I went, as Friends president, to one design competition meeting to hear what the state officials were telling the potential designers about Liberty State Park and the criteria (this design fails the criterion about it being integrated into LSP), and I went specifically to clearly tell the DEP "Jury" representative on behalf of The Friends, that a design selection must not block the lower Manhattan skyline views. It was assumed that the Jury, especially with a DEP representative on it, would never include a finalist for the Plaza that blocks the views. Secondarily, as a private citizen I went to that one design competition orientation meeting thinking that I may enter a personal, simple drawing and a brief description for a low wall right next to the Hudson River railing for victims' names, and a lawn, flowers, bushes, and benches on the Plaza. I heard about the technical professional requirements for submissions, and so didn't submit. But, again, an open design competition meeting is not a public meeting at LSP on the 8 finalists or on this design."
•  ..."group plans to hold an open meeting Aug. 16." The Friends have been forced to have an open public meeting, because DEP has refused to, on Wed. August 16 at 6:30 in the lawn just west of the Hill near the Terminal (inside is rainsite).