ABNY, Alliance Stand United at 9/11 Memorial

NEW YORK CITY-With roughly four months until the 10^th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, the message driving the 9/11 Memorial Plaza was reinforced Thursday morning by members of the Association for a Better New York and the Alliance for Downtown New York at 7 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Both organizations reflected on the 2,982 victims of the attack in light of the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, vowing that the final touches at the eight-acre memorial site go beyond just bricks and mortar.

“Given the dramatic events of earlier this week, along with President Obama’s visit to the World Trade Center site today, the timing of this presentation couldn’t be better,” said Robert R. Douglass, chairman of the Downtown Alliance. “While much work remains, we at the Alliance are thrilled to see the rapid progress we are now seeing throughout the World Trade Center site,” he said, describing the location as the “heart and soul of Downtown” and a “tribute to the strength and resilience of New Yorkers.”

In preparation for a September opening, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum unveiled a new memorial guide called names.911memorial.org, an online database that arranges victim’s names by kin, companies, places of residence or other affiliations. Designed by media firm Local Projects LLP, the application provides the location of each name and information connected to it. “These stories are only a few of thousands,” said Joe Daniels, CEO and president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. “They connect the names to each other, and us to them.”

The memorial itself--occupying half of the 16-acre redevelopment site--will include two waterfalls and reflecting pools set where the original twin towers once stood. The nearly 3,000 names of victims at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and United Flight 93 will be inscribed in bronze on panels that frame the north and south reflecting pools, surrounded by a plaza of trees. It is expected to draw millions of new visitors to Lower Manhattan.

“It is a symbol of not only of the road ahead, but of how far we have already come,” Daniels said. With the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and other city and state agencies, ABNY is literally counting down the days--129 to be exact--until the completion of the memorial by the 10^th anniversary. “The eyes of the world will be focused on the site on that day to a tremendously intense degree,” Daniels said, explaining that the site will be open to 9/11 families only on the anniversary; it opens to the general public on Sept. 12. “We simply and collectively had to be in a position to deliver a memorial that inspires and that this city and country could be proud of.”

After raising $395 million in funds for the site’s development, the Downtown Alliance is now working with the city’s Department of Transportation on a transit partners program to coordinate ferry service and hop-on-hop-off buses to accommodate the high volume of visitors expected to tour the site.

Meanwhile, the rising steel at 1 World Trade and 4 World Trade are already taking shape. “You see the rebirth that is happening,” said William C. Rudin, ABNY chairman and president at Rudin Management Co., explaining that the memory of 9/11 has been “front and center” and will shape the national dialogue once again. “With the President coming to town here at Ground Zero, it reinforces the message around the world that we have had a victory on the war on terror,” he said. “And we are grateful for the courage and bravery and determination of all the men and women serving in our armed forces.”