This week, Paul Goldberger considers
the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, designed by the young architect
Michael Arad in collaboration with the landscape architect Peter Walker.
He writes, “Early on, public officials made the sensible decision
that, whatever happened at the site, nothing new would rise exactly
where the Twin Towers had stood. Arad didn’t tiptoe around the
footprint; instead he made it the basis for a strong, almost minimalist
design, turning the footprint of each tower into a square hole, with
waterfalls running down the sides into a reflecting pool below. At the
center of each reflecting pool is another, smaller square, into which
water tumbles, as if it were flowing to the center of the earth. Arad
figured out how to express the idea that what were once the largest
solids in Manhattan are now a void, and he made the shape of this void
into something monumental.” Watch a time-lapse video of the memorial’s construction.