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Crescent design replaced for 9-11 memorial
PITTSBURGH — Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday.
The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, features most of the details of the original, which was unveiled in September after a worldwide design competition.
But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a “Crescent of Embrace,” a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees.
In September, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., criticized the design in a letter to the National Park Service Director, saying many questioned the shape “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, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an “unfortunate diversion,” but said they were sensitive to the concerns.
In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes welcomes visitors to the site, where they can then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims’ names inscribed.
Awesome.
Thurs. AM Update: Alec at Error Theory has examined the new memorial and makes a strong case that it still looks like an Islamo-fascist shrine. Worth a look-see.
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Eternal vigilance pays off yet again. Had the PC crowd not been monitored, the initial design would have been rammed through.
I hope they rename it from the ‘Crescent of Peace’ to ‘Let’s Roll Bowl’.
I can accept that the original design was innocent. What boggles my mind is that when the implications were noted, the planners went into full blown defensive mode, instead of saying, “Oh, right, that’s unfortunate. Okay, can’t use that design.”
At risk of invoking Godwin’s Law, it’s akin to choosing a swastika layout for a Holocaust memorial, on the grounds that it’s an efficient use of space and besides, was used for centuries before the Nazis.
Aside from the crescent flap, I would really prefer the memorial be more, oh, defiant. The passengers on Flight 93 fought, and won heroically. I would like something more inspiring than contemplative.
Don’t celebrate yet. In the redesign, the red maple crescent is only blended in with a few more trees. Both of the crescent tips are still defined exactly as before. The crescent bisector still points to Mecca. There is still an upper section of memorial wall, bisected by the red crescent bisector and containing additional translucent blocks. The Tower of Voices is still an Islamic prayer-time sundial. The whole Flight 93 memorial is still a jihadist shrine!
P.S. My complete analysis here.
Steve S. – The news report I read said the “implications” of that design were, indeed, brought to the attention of the designers before the public uproar. The designers, though, pooh-poohed the complainants’ concerns. (Sorry, I don’t recall where I read that.) And given that the designers did get defensive, I’m inclined to believe they were forewarned.
Alec – interesting. I’ll link up to it in the main post.