The worst design of the worst set of finalists was just chosen for the World Trade Center Memorial.
Michael Arad’s barren, sunken pools, “Reflecting Absence,” was a favorite of Maya Lin, according to an unnamed LMDC source who was heavily spinning the NY Post’s William Neuman against the design Sunday.
The only positive aspect of the proposal: it was the only finalist to call for alterations to fellow Israeli Daniel Libeskind’s proposed cultural buildings, including eliminating that one museum from above the North Tower footprint. The LMDC says there’ll be extensive changes to the design, which I hope renders it essentially unrecognizable.
Ultimately, I’m troubled that I, a fervent fan of minimalist art–including Michael Heizer’s works at Dia: Beacon which this is most reminiscent of–am so put out by a half-baked minimalist memorial.
[update: at my WTC discussion page, I added a follow-up on Peter Walker, the just-announced-today new partner in the WTC memorial design. He’s a veteran minimalist landscape architect who’ll probably fill the barren plaza with grids of “teeming groves of trees,” as one juror put it.]