Progress report: Granite is filling 9/11 Memorial pool (Updated X3)
Section by section, panels of smooth dark granite is being installed in the north pool of the 9/11 Memorial. Nearly 4,000 of these panels - each weighing about 420 pounds - will fill the memorial pool. The two memorial pools, roughly about an acre in size, will be lined with the granite. Work to install the stone in the south pool is to begin soon. The pools feature 30-foot waterfalls and are set within the original footprints of the World Trade Center's twin towers. Read more about the memorial pools here.
The design for the twin waterfalls for the 9/11 Memorial is an engineering marvel. There will be ten large pumps creating about 40 pounds of pressure to circulate about 52,000 gallons of water per minute. The pipework that will carry the recycled water for the falls and the reflecting pools started, said Lou Mendes, the vice president of design and construction for the 9/11 Memorial. Special sensors are being installed that will help regulate water flow, added Mendes, an ex-top city official who ran clean-up operations after 9/11.
Architect Michael Arad designed the “Reflecting Absence” memorial at the World Trade Center site, formerly known as Ground Zero. The 9/11 Memorial opens next year for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
Update: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released these photos of the continued labor of installing the memorial pool granite. The Gothamist updated a recent report on a tour of the 9/11 Memorial with a brief post about the ongoing granite installation, which was first reported on the MEMO blog.
By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial
They are used to running into burning houses.Now a group of firefighters from Down Under will run from the coast of Los Angeles to the island of Manhattan in support of the nearly 3,000 victims - including "411 first responders" who died on Sept. 11. The
I'm in a unique position. I see the arrivals of most of the guests for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.They walk by the receiving desk at the lower Manhattan office on their way for construction updates, oral history appointments or consu