"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
Michael Arad Reflects on 9/11 Memorial Design
The Meetinghouse was filled to capacity on February 9 as Michael Arad, architect and designer of the National 9/11 Memorial presented a lecture, Reflecting Absence: Designing the 9/11 Memorial.
The Meetinghouse was filled to capacity on February 9 as Michael Arad, architect and designer of the National 9/11 Memorial presented a lecture, Reflecting Absence: Designing the 9/11 Memorial. The 60-minute lecture was the highlight of the School's 2012 Peace Week celebration, Peace Like a River: Water as Metaphor and Matter.
“In this anniversary year of 9/11, we are indeed fortunate to have Michael Arad as our Peace Week speaker,” Principal Bo Lauder said. “This year’s theme provided the perfect context for examining the healing powers of water that Arad’s 9/11 Memorial referenced.”
During the lecture, Mr. Arad explained the logistics in creating the 9/11 Memorial, but he also discussed how the monument was designed to show communal loss through derivation of the waterfalls and the clarity and precision in each stream of water.
"Design is guided by a strong set of ideas, but it is also a process," Mr. Arad said. "My design tries to make absence visible."
The 9/11 Memorial, located at the site of the former World Trade Center complex, and occupying approximately half of the 16-acre site, remembers the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. The Memorial features two enormous waterfalls and reflecting pools, each about an acre in size, set within the footprints of the original twin towers and framed by almost 400 swamp white oak trees that create a rustling canopy of leaves over the plaza. Ringing the pools are 76, sculptural bronze panels that bear the names of the victims.
Mr. Arad’s design for the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site, titled “Reflecting Absence,” was selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation from among more than 5,000 entries submitted in an international competition held in 2003. His design for the Memorial emerged from his own experiences in New York, first as a witness to the events of the attacks and then as a participant in the city's compassionate and resolute response in the days that followed.
In addition to his lecture, Mr. Arad visited Friends a day earlier and spoke to students about the Memorial. At an assembly, a group of students announced to the School and Mr. Arad that they had raised $500 for the National 9/11 Memorial..
Friends Seminary’s annual Peace Week celebration gives focus to the fundamental Quaker testimony of peace. Each year, a theme is chosen to give broad guidance to those in the community in planning lessons, activities or events.
“In this anniversary year of 9/11, we are indeed fortunate to have Michael Arad as our Peace Week speaker,” Principal Bo Lauder said. “This year’s theme provided the perfect context for examining the healing powers of water that Arad’s 9/11 Memorial referenced.”
"Design is guided by a strong set of ideas, but it is also a process," Mr. Arad said. "My design tries to make absence visible."
The 9/11 Memorial, located at the site of the former World Trade Center complex, and occupying approximately half of the 16-acre site, remembers the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. The Memorial features two enormous waterfalls and reflecting pools, each about an acre in size, set within the footprints of the original twin towers and framed by almost 400 swamp white oak trees that create a rustling canopy of leaves over the plaza. Ringing the pools are 76, sculptural bronze panels that bear the names of the victims.
Mr. Arad’s design for the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site, titled “Reflecting Absence,” was selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation from among more than 5,000 entries submitted in an international competition held in 2003. His design for the Memorial emerged from his own experiences in New York, first as a witness to the events of the attacks and then as a participant in the city's compassionate and resolute response in the days that followed.
In addition to his lecture, Mr. Arad visited Friends a day earlier and spoke to students about the Memorial. At an assembly, a group of students announced to the School and Mr. Arad that they had raised $500 for the National 9/11 Memorial..
Friends Seminary’s annual Peace Week celebration gives focus to the fundamental Quaker testimony of peace. Each year, a theme is chosen to give broad guidance to those in the community in planning lessons, activities or events.
Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
