Winning Memorial Plan Is Unveiled by Etta Sanders The refined version of Reflecting Absence, the winning design for the World Trade Center memorial, was unveiled on Jan. 14. Changes to the once-stark design clearly reflected that the jury had heard the desires and objections of Downtown residents, victims' family members and the public. "All the elements have come together," said Community Board 1 member Albert Capsouto. The design, by New York City Housing Authority architect Michael Arad, features the footprints of the Trade Center as twin voids into which water falls in a 30-foot curtain. Arad's original submission showed scattered pine trees in a stone plaza, a slender building along West Street. Following the announcement of Reflecting Absence as the winner, California-based landscape architect Peter Walker was added to the design team. With his help, a street level plaza around the footprints has been transformed into what the landscape designer described as an "urban forest" of deciduous trees with benches "This is a major park space in the middle of downtown Manhattan which is in desperate need of open space," Walker said. In the revised plan, cultural buildings will be located at the newly restored corner of Fulton and Greenwich Streets, with the plaza open at street level along West Street. One ramp will lead from the plaza past the exposed slurry wall down 70 feet to bedrock, a major requirement of many of the victims' families who consider the bedrock sacred space. Another ramp will extend down 30 feet to the area around the footprints. Those changes, especially the removal of the building along West Street, which the community board cited as a barrier, addressed community objections to the original design. "I think there's a good amount of connectivity. People can walk through the site," said Capsouto. "It's a nice mixture of civic plaza and memorial." One of the main criticisms of the eights finalists was that they lacked a relevance to the place and to the attacks. The memorial will now contain some of those artifacts in an underground interpretive center. Mary Fechet, head of the Coalition of 9/11 Families whose son died at the WTC, said the changes were an improvement, but she would still like to see a more prominent display of the surviving pieces of the Trade Center itself. "Michael has done a wonderful job as far as providing an atmosphere where people can reflect and commemorate," she said, "But the thing the memorial is truly missing is the authenticity of what survived." Another change to the plan was in the listing of victims' names. In Arads' original version no distinction was made for rescue workers, who had strongly voiced that they be given separate recognition. In a compromise, those names will be designated by a shield. Arad, 34, spoke at the presentation of his own experience in the days following Sept. 11 and his personal sense of loss. One of the most difficult parts of making changes to the design, he said, had been trying to incorporate everyone's needs. "Every way you find to do this satisfies some," he said, "but causes pain and anguish to another." A foundation has been set up to raise the expected $350 million estimated cost of the memorial as it continues to undergo further refinements. The jury has also suggested that the Tribute in Light return on each anniversary of the attacks. John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, ended the unveiling ceremony by saying that as the centerpiece of the rebuilt site the memorial would be "a lasting tribute to the heroes of Sept. 11 and at the same time the vital core of a renewed and reconnected community."