With Freedom Tower closing in on completion, our OTI team has enjoyed looking back at the small role our firm played in helping to chart the course for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.
OTI is honored to have helped with the public decision-making meeting process that was used to plan the 9/11 memorial and the new Freedom Tower. Our team provided the interactive technology used to get feedback and opinions from stakeholders at town hall meetings hosted in 2002 to help gather input for the planning efforts.
The format for these meetings was designed by AmericaSpeaks, a nationally recognized non-profit organization that organizes public input programs. The meetings were sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and the Port Authority (PA). The framework used was designed by AmericaSpeaks, who authored the necessary questions and facilitated the meetings. OptionFinder wireless keypads and OptionPower audience response software made the data collection process from the audience come to life.
In February 2002, the first ‘Listening to the City’ meeting was held by the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York. This meeting was designed to develop the vision and principles for the process of rebuilding Lower Manhattan, but ended up highlighting the importance of public opinion on the matter. Attendees included family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks, those at or near Ground Zero, rescue workers, residents of lower Manhattan, those working in lower Manhattan, those who have lost their jobs or income, interested citizens, and those who lost friends or co-workers. The decision-makers from the sponsors were so impressed with the results that they decided to hold a second meeting.
In July 2002, the second ‘Listening to the City’ meeting took place. It turned out to be one of the the largest facilitated public meetings ever held. More than 4,500 people attended the session held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Participants, including members of the general public, were given the chance to provide input on six possible site plans for the restoration of Ground Zero. Many concerns were expressed by the public. As part of the input attendees stated that the plans were not elaborate enough; “Looks like Albany;” “Nothing here is truly monumental.” The six conceptual plans reviewed included Memorial Plaza, Memorial Square, Memorial Triangle, Memorial Garden, Memorial Park and Memorial Promenade.
AmericaSpeaks created a presentation that enabled all participants’ voices to be heard by reacting to questions and issues using wireless keypads. As participants voted using the OptionFinder response system, they could immediately see how their answers compared to those tabulated from the entire audience. OptionPower software allowed AmericaSpeaks to take all of the answers given from participants and cross-tabulate results in a variety of useful ways. This enabled a number of issues to be identified and discussed during the first meeting, which in turn led to the creation of additional input exercises and compilation of data for the second meeting. Without OTI’s technology, it would have been nearly impossible to efficiently gather and tabulate the data from such a large group.
While all six of the conceptual plans ranked poorly by participants, Memorial Plaza had the best response. 15% of attendees thought the design was "excellent" and 21% said it was "good." When compared with negative reactions to the other plans by a majority of those on hand, the data showed that the Memorial Plaza concept was perceived to be a better option.
Participants were also asked to select the most important piece of advice that they would give to the planners. This advice included preserving the footprints of the Twin Towers as a "remarkable symbol," have visually appealing buildings to complement the skyline, restore the street grid, use green space via an extended promenade, and include performance venues to support cultural uses. Another important feature that participants liked was the concept of eliminating West Street as a barrier between Battery Park City and the rest of Lower Manhattan; this received a vote of 71% considering it to be very important and 17% thought it to be important. Many of these reactions were incorporated into the site redevelopment plan that was implemented.
More than half of the voters, 57%, said that the most important element of the six plans presented was to add a major symbol to the skyline. Today, the new Freedom Tower which will soon be completed, reaching 1,776 feet in height, brings the vision of those meeting participants into reality.
The cornerstone of Freedom Tower reads “To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom” which ties into the height of the tower, reflecting the US triumph over terrorism as well as the freedom and founding of the United States of America in the year 1776.
Being one of the most eco-friendly plazas ever constructed, the new Memorial Plaza features twin waterfall and reflecting pools, over 400 swamp white oak trees, and designated spaces for gatherings and special ceremonies. This winning design by architects Michael Arad and Peter Walker was chosen from the 5,201 submissions that were received from 63 nations in a global design competition.
The reflecting pools are set within the footprints of the Twin Towers and each reach nearly an acre in size. Along the edge of the pools are bronze parapets that are inscribed with the names of every person killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The names are stencil-cut into the parapets so that visitors can create impressions or rubbings of the names. To ensure that the names are always visible and honored, light shines through the voids of the inscribed names at night.
Memorial Plaza will be a mediating space as well as a living part of the city. It was designed to convey an annual cycle of rebirth in order to deepen the experience of the memorial and to create a spirit of hope and renewal for our nation.
The 9/11 Memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in a ceremony for victims’ families. It was opened to the public on September 12, 2011. The Freedom Tower is due to be completed and ready for occupancy in 2013. The opportunity to participate in this public town meeting project was a unique honor that the OTI team will always remember.
