By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Vertical limestone pillars will surround a steel beam from the World Trade Center and horizontal memorial stones will be embedded in the earth nearby in the latest concept for the future 9/11 memorial.
The permanent memorial to all that died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is proposed to be located in a lawn area south of the main walkway, east of the Revolutionary War Memorial at Borough Hall.
”It’s very public, it’s very prominent and visible,” said Merilee Meacock, a partner with KSS Architects working on the project, as she explained on Monday morning how they came up with their design. “We wanted to find something that was very simple and very much of the earth and something that would blend with the environment that’s there.”
The memorial is designed to interpret the interruption the terror attacks brought upon life in Princeton and the United States.
”What we are trying to do is create something simple in the landscape,” said Ms. Meacock, who noted the area was designed to represent the feelings of that day. “In this case we wanted to create these moments that would describe an interruption in nature. We didn’t want to represent the event as something symbolic of the towers or completely symbolic of the nine families, we wanted go out bigger than that. The day before the event we thought we were as Americans that we were safe from all war and terrorism … and after the event it took away something from us, but I think it only took it temporarily.”
Limestone markers will have words, which have yet to be determined, inscribed on them and run parallel to the war memorial in the grass. Limestone benches will rise from these horizontal lines.
A blue stone path, which will be donated by Princeton University, will lead people into the site from the main walkway in front of Borough Hall.
Princeton Junction artist Pietro del Fabro is assisting with the design and hopes the residents of Princeton will take part in helping him design the actual stones.
The steel and its surrounding stone would be the vertical elements of the memorial.
The stone walls, with varying depths, widths and heights that surround the steel will be cut a bit shorter than the beam itself and have smaller stones placed on the tops to create a ledges.
”I don’t know if you’ve seen this in the Mediterranean or Jewish cemeteries, but people when they come to a cemetery or an important site they will bring or pick up a stone on the ground and leave it on the ledge,” he said. “It creates a continuous interaction forever, so it doesn’t die when we finish it and it continues to be active.”
Mr. del Faro is an alum of Princeton High School.
A separate limestone pillar will sit a bit apart from the steel beam, and represent a cenotaph, or an empty tomb.
”It’s an ancient classic Mediterranean word,” said Mr. del Faro. “It’s a form you see in Mediterranean, especially Renaissance art, but it goes back before that and it’s a device in art that when you don’t have the remains to create a tomb, so it’s an empty tomb. This is the cenotaph for all the people that died.”
Princeton residents will be encouraged to participate in the creation of the cenotaph.
”I want this to be a place where people can go and learn something about 9/11,” said Roy James, a Princeton firefighter who has been the driving force behind the memorial. “In the ground markers we are doing something in poetry or something to give some kind of learning experience. The other major thing is we want people to be able to go there and remember.”
The memorial will need approval from the New Jersey Department of Transportation because the site is in the agency’s easement. The state owns the front lawn of Borough Hall, which faces Route 206.
