Architects have re-designed part of the Flight 93 Memorial that will be built near Shanksville, PA, to honor the memory of the 40 passengers and crew who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The new design features a circular bowl instead of a crescent-shaped arc that critics charged was a symbol of terrorism. In a letter last September to the director of the National Park Service, congressman Thomas G. Tancredo (R, Colo) raised concerns about the original design because of "the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam -- and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists."
Paul Murdoch, president of Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles, CA, the firm that designed the memorial, called the controversy over the original design "unfortunate," but he said he now wants to "move beyond any sort of divisive labeling and really focus on what the actual experience of the memorial will be."
The new plan, released in the November newsletter of the Flight 93 Memorial, says a crescent of red maples will be replaced by a large, bowl shaped area now called "the 40 Memorial Groves" because of the addition of trees along one edge. According to the plan, the changes will enhance the earlier design through a break in the trees to better define the path the jetliner took before it crashed.
The official report of the 9-11 Commission said the flight crashed as passengers tried to take back control of the plane from the hijackers.
Other features of the original design that will be retained include a Tower of Voices with 40 wind chimes that will greet visitors to the site, and a circular path to the crash site itself, where a black slate plaza will be installed along with a white marble wall inscribed with the names of those who died.
The memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2011.
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