Heroism. And happenstance.
The Flight 93 Memorial context.
Heroism.
The World Trade Center Memorial is all about consequences after the attack. Flight 93 is uniquely about actions and decisions in the heat of battle.
Happenstance.
The Pentagon was a target against whose backdrop its memorial draws resonance. But this one particular, innocuous field in Pennsylvania was anointed by a matter of wind velocity and a few seconds more or less of pitched battle.
Flight 93 is an odyssey, whose narrative lessons of heroism are more telling than the crash site itself, or the aftermath of 9/11.
We designed the entire experience- from the gateway approach through the individual memorials to the impact site, as a story told via words and plants and landscape forms. A story emphasizing the passenger and crew’s explicit decision to take a stand, no matter the consequences. A story to feel in our legs and our beating heart, as well as our head.
A story of The Road Not Taken.
For which we must all be grateful.
2004