Anticipating 250,000 visitors annually to the planned United Flight 93 national memorial, county officials have hired a landscape architect to conduct a study of the main roads and the adjacent land to the site and how it might be developed, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Jim Klein, ASLA, a principal with
Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects, is conducting the corridor study.
Both residents and officials have voiced development concerns.
The
New York Times has a nice article on efforts by
Peter Walker and Partners and Environmental Design of Tomball, Texas, to
find and choose the 380 swamp white oaks and 57 sweet gums that will be used in the World Trade Center memorial. The paper cites the importance of the trees, noting that they "will essentially be the architecture of memorial, forming allees and bowers around the two great voids where the twin towers stood. They will be a canopy for the memorial and a buffer from the skyscrapers all around. They will also be the memorial’s stained-glass ceiling, turning from wintry silver to chartreuse in springtime, then to emerald at the height of summer."
The article also notes that pavement in the memorial will be suspended over planting troughs "like a deck set on structural legs" to allow the tree roots ample room to grow.
Or will speak, as the case may be. Walker will speak at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, Wednesday, November 8, and in Portland on Thursday Nov. 9, as part of the University's free Yeon Lecture Series. Walker, who created the design for the open space at Jamison Square in the Pearl District, was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects Medal in 2004. The award is the highest honor the organization presents to landscape architects. Walker also received the first-ever Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Gold Medal from the International Federation of Landscape Architects. His firm is currently working on the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City.
So, if you're in Eugene or Portland, go check it out.
Here are the particulars.
The Living Memorials Project, run by the USDA Forest Service and capably overseen by
Matthew Arnn, ASLA, is having an exhibit of the program's work at the NPS Federal Hall National Memorial, 26 Wall Street, NY, NY, from October 6-27. For those not familiar with the Living Memorials Project, it catalogues, supports, and helps create spaces "used, or re-appropriated by people as they employ the landscape to memorialize individuals, places, and events." The exhibit, which will feature 12 such spaces created in response to 9/11, is being organized by Parsons The New School For Design, The Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, and the USDA Forest Service.
For landscape architects looking to do some pro-bono work and build the professions through community work--particularly working with high school kids--the Living Memorials Project is something to check out. Landscape architects will often work directly with a community to set up the living memorial and guide it from conception to completion.
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