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In remembrance of those who died Sept. 11, 2001, Westchester
County Executive Andy Spano presided over a ceremony to break
ground for a memorial to the Westchester victims of 9-11 on Friday, Sept.
10 at 12 noon at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.
Spano was joined by the family members of 9-11 victims as well as
Rep. Nita Lowey; Board of Legislators Chairman Bill Ryan,
members of the Board of Legislators and Architect Frederic
Schwartz, who designed "The Rising", an 80-foot sculpture of
intertwining stainless steel strands that will serve as a memorial
to the county’s 9-11 victims. Honor guards from the Valhalla and
North White Plains Fire Departments and Westchester County will
open the ceremony.
At
the ceremony, Spano announced a $2,500 donation by the Rotary Club
of White Plains, the first gift to a special fund set up by the
Friends of Westchester County Parks Inc. to maintain the memorial.
“On
Sept. 10, the day before the third anniversary of 9-11, we will
come together to break ground for a memorial to the residents
who died on Sept. 11, 2001,’’ said Spano. “This memorial was
designed not only as a tribute to each individual who was lost,
but as testimony to the collective grief of our community. At the
same time, Frederic Schwartz, the architect who designed it,
wanted visitors to the memorial to come away with a sense of hope
and renewal.
I think the design achieves that balance.
The memorial will include the names of the Westchester
residents who died, the communities in which they lived and a
quote from their loved ones. The words will be engraved along the
outside of the memorial’s circular base. The rods will extend
from the base like the spokes of a wheel before reaching up and
intertwining. Perennial plantings will surround the base, with the Kensico Dam as the backdrop
Family members unanimously selected “The Rising” from among 37
proposals received by the count. The memorial, which will be
unveiled on Sept. 11, 2005, was first announced in April during
the State of the County address.
Frederic
Schwartz, an internationally-known Manhattan architect who
designed the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal located at the tip
of Manhattan and founded the THINK team, a group of architects
whose design was selected as a finalist for the redesign of the
World Trade Center and will also be designing New Jersey’s 9-11
memorial.
In
addition to Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony, Westchester will
remember those lost in the terrorist attacks by asking houses of
worship in Westchester to ring their bells on Sat., Sept. 11 at
8:46 a.m. and again at 9:03 a.m., the times when the hijacked
planes struck the World Trade Center.
Spano
first announced his idea for a 9-11 memorial in his April 2002
State of the County address. The county set aside $150,000 for the
memorial and another $50,000 is from a state grant obtained by
former Assemblywoman Naomi Matusow.
Requests
for proposals went out to artists Sept. 2003 and by the Jan. 15
deadline the county had received 37 proposals from across the
country and one from an artist in Valencia, Spain.
Committee
members involved in the selection process included family members
Rosaleen and Mary O’Neill, Juliette Brisman, Helen Friedlander
and Linda Pohlman. Consulting on the selection were Mona Chen, of
the MTA Art for Transit Program; Lucinda Gedeon, former director
of the Neuberger Museum; Janet Langsam, Director of the
Westchester Arts Council, Randy Williams, Manhattanville College
Art Department Chairman and John Sullivan, Architect.
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