Unveiling of the Trade Center Memorial Reveals an Abundance of New Details
By GLENN COLLINS and DAVID W. DUNLAP

Published: January 15, 2004
Also, it was the first time a price tag was mentioned. The development corporation said that the preliminary estimate of the memorial site's cost was $350 million. This does not include the curatorial costs of creating the memorial's interpretive center but it does include the estimated $175 million to build the infrastructure underlying a platform 70 feet above the original foundations.
But the decision to mark the names of the rescuers prompted a call to recognize another group of uniformed workers: the 33 pilots and flight attendants who were, in a sense, the very first responders, since they died aboard the four hijacked jetliners.

We see this as a vital first step in the process to make a sterile design more authentic," said Anthony Gardner, a spokesman for the Coalition of 9/11 Families. He was pleased that the development corporation told his group that at bedrock, 97 percent of the north footprint and 57 percent of the south footprint would be unobstructed.
But Mr. Gardner expressed dismay that more details about the fate of the steel column remnants at bedrock had not been revealed. And he said he hoped that trade-center artifacts like the blasted, soaring tower facades could be placed at street level "to communicate the enormity of Sept. 11."

While much has been made of the relation between Mr. Arad's minimalist design and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin - who was one of the jurors - Mr. Arad said yesterday that he had begun thinking about a trade center memorial long before the competition began, long before he knew that Ms. Lin would be one of the jurors.
That said, he also acknowledged his appreciation of her design, which has influenced a generation of designers. "I've been very moved by it," said Mr. Arad, an architect with the New York City Housing Authority.
For his part, Mr. Walker said that while he had been generally aware of the finalists - having unsuccessfully entered the competition himself - he did not know at first which submission had come from Mr. Arad. But once he put Mr. Arad's name together with the Reflecting Absence plan, he said yes. "This probably was the only scheme that I could have worked with wholeheartedly," Mr. Walker said. "It was very much in the area of my interest."
About his own submission to the competition, Mr. Walker said: "We followed the rules and I think that was a mistake, in retrospect. There were a number of things in the rules that made it difficult to have something singular. I think Michael's scheme was so much more direct, so much more essential."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/15/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/15memorial.html