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SPANO UNVEILS DESIGN CHOSEN FOR
WESTCHESTER 9/11 MEMORIAL
  Stainless steel memorial at Kensico Dam selected by
committee of families, experts

Two years after his promise to build a memorial to the county residents who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, County Executive Andy Spano today unveiled the design for the memorial at Kensico Dam Plaza during his State of the County address.

"The families wanted a memorial that would be a welcoming destination for individual remembrance and reflection and that would leave the visitor with a feeling of hope for the future," said Spano. "I think this memorial evokes all those feelings and more. Not only is it a tribute to those who died on that terrible day, but it is a recognition that we are all bound together."

Family members unanimously selected "The Rising," an 80-foot sculpture of intertwining stainless steel strands rising to form a single steel rod that reaches skyward. It is the work of 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.

Rosaleen O’Neill, whose son Sean was killed in the World Trade Center attacks, said that she was very moved by Schwartz’ design, which she described as a "shining cathedral reaching to the sky."

At the time of the attack, Sean O’Neill was 34 and a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald. He had been newly married and his wife was pregnant at the time with their now 2-year-old daughter, Sean.

Rosaleen O’Neill said she met the County Executive at an event and was asked to serve on the committee after she told him of her son. "I am very proud to have been part of this process and to be living in Westchester County. Several of the designs were very nice, very well done, but this will be a stunning memorial that people will come back to see more than once."

O’Neill and other family members chose “The Rising” from among 37 designs submitted to the county. Family members were advised by planners, park officials, art and architectural experts. The memorial is scheduled to be unveiled September 11, 2005 at the county-owned park in Valhalla.

Spano said that it was important that family members be the ones to choose the design.

"I told them, this was their memorial and that they needed to be involved in each and every step along the way," he said. "I think we succeeded in not only getting a world class design, but one that family members felt conveyed their feelings."

Schwartz, who has won a number of major national and international design competitions, said as a resident of lower Manhattan he was deeply affected by the September 11 attacks and wanted to design a memorial to honor the people who lost their lives and give hope to their loved ones. "Architects have a moral responsibility to help heal these wounds," said Schwartz. "Poets write, painters paint, this is my way of giving back."

Schwartz, who is donating his time to the project, said that it was important to him to design something that expressed the immensity of such a loss while still conveying a sense of hope.  "I wanted to do something to honor each person individually and unite them together with their community,"he said.

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.

Schwartz, who received the prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture in 1985, founded THINK, a team of international architects who designed the breathtaking latticework twin towers selected as one of the finalists for the redesign of the new World Trade Center. Herbert Muschamp, architecture critic for The New York Times, called the design “a work of genius” and a "towering affirmation of humanism in modern times." In October of 2003, as part of the Smithsonian Museum’s National Design Awards, Schwartz was honored at the White House for his work at Ground Zero.

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 will come 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, Director of the Neuberger Museum; Janet Langsam, Director of the Westchester Arts Council, Randy Williams, Manhattanville College Art Department Chairman and John Sullivan, Architect.

First runner up in the selection process was Yorktown Architect Paul Willen and his Woodlands Team of Anthony Walmsley, Al Landzberg and Helen Dimos. They proposed a "Path of Remembrance" bordered on one side with a 3-foot high, 120-foot long L-shaped "Wall of Remembrance" with plaques honoring each of the victims. It also featured a classical labyrinth lined with low shrubbery, culminating in a circle of columnar trees.

Selection Committee member Mona Chen, of the MTA Art for Transit Program, said while both proposals were impressive, committee members were immediately drawn to "The Rising." She called the project "awe inspiring" and "unique."

"It worked on so many levels, the artistic, the practical, the emotional. It is visually powerful in a simple and elegant way," she said.