Governor George E. Pataki today announced the opening of a World Trade Center Memorial Exhibit at the Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building which includes models, renderings, and animations. The over four-acre memorial, Reflecting Absence, will honor all those lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The exhibit will be on display weekdays from March 28-April 7 just off the lobby.

"Last December we unveiled the final schematic design for a lasting memorial to honor those we lost at the World Trade Center site and to tell the story of September 11th to the world," Governor Pataki said. "Architects Michael Arad, Peter Walker, and Max Bond have created a design that captures our sense of loss, as well as the courage that prevailed in the face of tragedy. I am pleased that we will be able to share this powerful design with the public in Buffalo because it is truly a moving memorial. September 11th broke the hearts of all New Yorkers, but it did not break our spirit and this memorial is a tribute to that resilience and hope."

"I want to encourage the public to visit the memorial exhibit while it is available at the Mahoney State Office Building or at one of the other locations throughout the state that it will soon be traveling to. Our State, our nation, and over 92 countries lost family, friends, and neighbors on September 11th. We will share this memorial with the entire world," the Governor said.

The exhibit will be open for public viewing weekdays in the courtroom at 65 Court Street just off the main lobby beginning at 8 am on Monday, March 28 and run through Thursday, April 7. The exhibit will feature a scale model of the memorial and site plan for the World Trade Center site including the Freedom Tower, and an additional model that depicts the three levels of the memorial.

The exhibit is open on weekdays from 8 am-6 pm. After the display in Buffalo, the memorial exhibit will travel to Binghamton and Hauppauge before returning to its permanent exhibition at the World Financial Center, across from the World Trade Center site. The exhibit was previously on display at the State Capitol in Albany, in Syracuse at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in Watertown at the Dulles State Office Building, and in Rochester at Monroe Community College.

The memorial features a lively landscaped civic plaza with two massive voids aligned with the footprints where the twin towers once stood. Other features include a large ceremonial one-and-a-half acre clearing on the plaza level and a gallery on the second memorial level where the names of those lost on September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 can be viewed while water cascades behind them. The design allows visitors to enter the memorial between the footprints and descend down to the memorial level. The memorial level includes Memorial Hall connecting the two viewing galleries that surround the reflecting pools and whose exterior walls delineate the original footprints.

Between the two pools, and off Memorial Hall, visitors will be able to travel down to the lowest level of the memorial where the Contemplation Room that houses a tomb for the unidentified remains, family area, and space for the medical examiner are found. On the lowest level, the exposed box beam remnants can be seen and touched and in the northwest quadrant, visitors will see and touch the massive edifice of the exposed slurry wall. As visitors return above ground to the plaza level, the surrounding trees mediate their return to daily life.

In January of 2004, a 13-member jury selected Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad and Landscape Architect Peter Walker as the design for the World Trade Center Memorial. Their design was selected from over 5,000 international submissions.

In April of 2003, The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) launched the international World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. Guidelines for the competition were developed based on the memorial mission statement and program. These guiding documents were developed by two separate volunteer committees, comprised of family members, residents, survivors, first responders, arts and architecture professionals and community leaders. The documents were shaped by thousands of public comments generated at public meetings in every borough, Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, as well as comments received from around the world through letters and the LMDC's website.

In what became the largest design competition in history, 5,201 submissions were received from 63 nations and 49 states. All 5,201 proposals were evaluated by a 13-member memorial jury comprised of individuals representing various points of view, including world renowned artists and architects, a family member, a Lower Manhattan resident and business owner, representatives of the Governor and New York City Mayor Bloomberg, and other prominent arts and cultural professionals. The jury evaluated proposals in a two stage process based on how well each design expressed the mission statement and program, as set forth in the competition guidelines.

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has been created to construct, own, operate, and maintain the memorial. Information on the Foundation can be found on the web at www.WTCMemorialFoundation.org.

The Foundation expects to raise approximately $500 million. Donations can be made on the Foundation’s web site or checks, made payable to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, can be sent to:

World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 5024
Bowling Green Station
New York, NY 10274-5024

More information and additional renderings are available at www.RenewNYC.com.