jeffrey maron

jeffreymaron.com

about the artist

wtc memorial

The following images detail a proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial.

Please click on the individual images for an expanded view.

Spirit River

A river fed by 3,016 spouts of water and light. One for each of the lives lost (a name could be inscribed on each, and maps provided). Each spout will gently issue forth water, softly spilling out, feeding the river. The top half of each spout will be made of glass illuminated at night from within. The water will flow down the terraced, elevated footprints, swirling into a central catch basin. Along the viewing terraces, set with limestone ramps and benches for families, will be cuts in the capstone of the river retaining wall, to accommodate Memory Offerings which visitors might wish to leave behind. Underneath the raised end of each footprint will be facilities; in the north footprint, restrooms/support and a Memory Offering annex (where objects left can be safely stored for a finite period of time). In the south footprint will be the area for the unidentified remains.

A monument rises up out of the catch basin comprised of the 110-foot tall skeletal remnants/replica of the Twin Towers. This will rest upon a twenty-five foot tall, forty-foot wide, circular limestone base. The interior of this base, accessible to the public, could be used for historical content.

In the River itself there will be Memory Objects; a police car door, a pile of computers, an ambulance light bar, a jet door, etc.; all cast in stainless steel (like the metal of the structure which transformed them). The Memory Objects remind us of the deeds and sacrifice of those who lost their lives.

Visitors will sense the courage of those lost and their endurance, through the effort of moving up the terraces of the memorial and the curving ramps of the monument. A journey up the terraced footprint will bring us to the top of each side of the river, where the greatest concentration of spouts rest, a spot where we can look out and sense the enormity of our loss.

As it flows, the water in Spirit River serves to reconcile loss and continuation. It is both celebration and metaphor for the renewal of the human spirit.