The construction of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, a process characterized by "angst, frustration, lack of candor and absurdity," is being stalled by the competing objectives of the numerous parties involved, David Williams '79, the project manager, said in a lecture on Monday in Collis Center room 101. He attributed the significant delay to a lack of agreement among those involved regarding the relative importance of different components of the memorial.
The groups involved in the memorial's construction include the Port Authority of New York, Israeli architect Michael Arad '91, Davis Brody Bond Aedas (an architectural firm where Williams is a partner), real estate developer Larry Silverstein, the families of the victims of the terrorist attack and the New York Police Department.
"You would think that with all of the leadership and resolve, someone would be able to lead," Williams said. "While publicly everyone can agree, privately reaching a consensus among all these people is virtually impossible."
Williams blamed the "apathetic, toxic attitudes of the public agencies in charge of the site," the "inflexibility of the bureaucracy," the "self-promotion of esoteric 'star-chitects'" and the "families who cannot seem to get past the events of the day and move forward" for the "stagnation and obfuscation" of construction.
Sept. 11 was "one of the darkest hours but also one of the brightest" due to individuals' immediate generous response, Williams said. He added that "this presents the conundrum of whose memorial [it is]."
The central conflict is over whether the site should be strictly a memorial, or serve doubly as a transportation hub, as preferred by the Port Authority.
"Port Authority is unyielding in its belief that the new transportation hub is their true memorial, and they do not care that you cannot physically construct it," Williams said, adding that the Port Authority's construction plans are not feasible. "Even though they are a quasi-public agency and should respond to the governor and mayor, I sometimes get a call from [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg or [Gov. David Paterson, D-N.Y.] asking, 'What's going on down there?'"
Most people consider this construction project to be one of the most important architectural endeavors of the past 100 years, according to Williams, who called it "the world's largest renovation project." He presented images from Sept. 11, 2001 to emphasize the importance of the project.
"That is why we are here-- to memorialize and reflect on mankind's actions," he said.
The memorial consists of two projects, a memorial plaza and a museum, according to Williams. The plaza will have 280 trees and two massive voids over which water will flow, creating the largest man-made waterfalls in the United States. The rush of water will be audible several blocks from the site, Williams said. The names of the 2,980 people who were killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center will be incorporated into the memorial, but the precise design is still undecided.
"We are letting Michael Arad and the landscape architect battle it out" between two proposals, Williams said.
The museum will be interactive and include artifacts such as crushed plate girders, demolished vehicles and the Slurry Wall, which was constructed in the 1960s to hold back the Hudson River and withstood the attacks. There will also be two imprints replicating the exact size and footprint of towers one and two, Williams said.
Despite the rockiness of the process so far, Williams said he has some hope that because "this has generated so much social dialogue and controversy, the memorial will be a success in spite of itself."
The construction has in fact begun, he added, referencing the steel framework that was recently erected, but he noted that the steel had been "waiting to go in since 2007, as Port Authority got the site ready."
"My partners will not be happy with what I am about to say," Williams said in an interview with The Dartmouth prior to the lecture. "I have been agonizing over what to say for weeks. I am not politically correct and I say things exactly how I feel about them. At least I am honest and up front."
Although Williams attended Harvard University Graduate School of Design, he said that he utilizes the knowledge of construction technology that he acquired at the College more than the design instruction he received at Harvard. Williams is currently working on the renovation of Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity, of which he was a member, which he said he hopes to complete by June 1, 2009.
Williams was asked to speak by the College's architecture club.
