Recognized with the AIA Florida ‘Object’ Award for the Design of the World Trade Center Memorial
05/30/14
About the Design
The City of Tampa acquired an artifact - an eight-foot column - from the World Trade Center and chose “Patriot’s Corner” as the location for the memorial to show support for our military and first responders.
The City wanted to dedicate the Memorial on the tenth anniversary of September 11. Subsequently, the team had just 4 ½ months from design to dedication for this pro-bono project – truly a herculean effort. This fast-paced schedule required very close coordination between the City, the Architect, and the Construction Manager.
The result is a moving tribute to the events of September 11, 2001. The World Trade Center site is represented as an elevated concrete base, matching the orientation and scale of the actual WTC site in New York City. Thin aluminum members rise from the base, tracing the placement, material, and proportions of the twin towers. The memorial is 1/100 the scale of the actual towers and surrounding city block. The steel WTC artifact, held above the base within the symbolic north tower, functions as a sundial. As the shadow of the artifact falls on the ground the morning of September 11, the lower, radial slab marks the duration of time from the first airplane’s impact on the north tower (8:46 a.m.) to the subsequent collapse of the tower (10:28 a.m.) on September 11, 2001.