Newsday reports the WTC Memorial jury will select up to eight finalists, who will receive over $100,000 each to refine their designs more fully ("to develop models and three-dimensional computerized designs"). A winner (from among the finalists) will be announced in October or November.
Jurors apparently walk around placing dots on the designs they like. Designs without dots are then pulled from subsequent rounds. [No mention of how many dots a juror gets, or if later rounds require multiple dots. If not, a juror may be able to repeatedly dot a favorite design into the final rounds.]
Via Hugh and Ellyn, who submitted a design from Kansas. At first I was surprised, now I'm really pleased, but I've now heard from a couple dozen fellow entrants, most of whom contacted me through the site. The competition's gag rule has thrown approximately 5,199 of 5,200 people into a weird, cagey limbo; we really want to talk about our entries, but don't want to get disqualified. Maybe we should form Entrants Anonymous. ["My name's John, and I designed a spire." "Hi, John."]
