It’s taken almost 10 years, but the centerpiece of the proposed 9-11 memorial at Ground Zero is nearing completion — and the prototype was tested last week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Designers have been fine-tuning the 30-foot waterfalls — part of architect Michael Arad’s “Reflecting Absence” — behind the scenes at the Brooklyn Navy Yard so they can do their work without everyone kibitzing.
The tests have shown Arad where he needed to tweak a series of small grooves at the top of the memorial to create a fine veil of water that gives the piece its quiet elegance.
Though it will eventually comprise two large squares symbolizing the tower footprints, the prototype features two dark, stainless-steel walls that cascade water into a collecting pool. The final Manhattan version will be surrounded by a bronze memorial containing almost 3,000 names of those who were lost in the attack. The piece will be featured as part of a 16-acre, multi-level memorial complex slated to open at Ground Zero on the 10th anniversary of the attacks next year.
“I wanted the water and the design to … mark this continuous sense of absence,” Arad said. “These voids, even though water falls into them … they never fill up, they always remain empty, and that was very important to me.”
He’s been talking about it for nearly a decade, but the memorial is finally coming to fruition. Within the next few weeks, the prototype will be deconstructed, taken from our borough and readied for its move to the trade center site in the spring.
