Expanding her vision, Saad-Cook uses sunlight, transparency and structure to create architectural scale, time marking phenomena as incorporated in this design.

 

Solar Elegy
a World Trade Center Memorial
© Janet Saad-Cook, Artist*
© John Paul McGowan, Architect*

  

Ground Zero speaks to the world as a Pilgrimage Site

The Solar Complex, a solar time-marking structure, sits at the heart of the site, witness to the timeless cycle of the earth and sky… the bond shared by all humanity.

Radiating from the center of Ground Zero and rising 30 feet from its floor, specially coated glass walls of the Solar Complex, etched with the names of the dead, are positioned to interact with each other in sunlight.

When sunlight touches any part of the tilted deconstructed walls, fractured images of pure colors and the names of the dead fall onto the ground, marking time with sunlight and changing in harmony with the cycle of the sun.

 
  The names of the dead become part of the changing patterns of color and light marking time.
In this way, the Blessed Dead are part of the continuum of time.
  Visitors experience the Solar Complex by walking and standing in it, or by viewing it from seating areas and ramps in Ground Zero, or from buildings and walkways above.

The Site Plan


An ancient sacred geometry of rippling expanding lines unifies the site while expressing a balance and calm that moves viewers beyond the great silence of death. Inscribed onto the memorial site ground, this radiating geometry symbolizes the profound impact each human life has on other lives. Throughout time and in many cultures the egg form has symbolized the world. The geometry begins with this ancient symbol of the World Egg.

The Twin Tower Foot Prints are preserved and made visible as quiet sacred spaces separate from the central activity of the site. Each Foot Print is surrounded by a continuous seat wall and planters landscaped with seasonal blooming plants.

The North Foot Print becomes the final resting place for the unknowns. An eternal flame burns at the Foot Print's center, defining an area for quiet visitation and contemplation. For the South Foot Print and its adjacent waterfall, a small amphitheater looks into a pool and fountain designed to appear as the "outflow" of the waterfall.

All paved areas on the memorial site contain Concrete Particle Debris from the original Twin Tower buildings.

   
  East-West Section showing Solar Complex and South Foot Print  

 

 
 
  North-South Section
showing North Foot Print, Solar Complex, South Foot Print and Wall of Remembrance 		 
 

Wall of Remembrance

The Wall of Remembrance provides a place for families and loved ones to be part of creating a personal elegy for their dead. Marked daily by the sun, it is also a place that honors the endurance of survivors, and the courage and compassion of all who risked their lives to save others.

 

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Individuals who died: a memento for every person who died is to be selected by loved ones and sent to the memorial project. The item must fit into a specially designed steel box measuring three inches by three inches by one inch deep. Each item is archived and placed in the steel box, engraved with the name and years of birth and death; each steel box is imbedded into the Wall of Remembrance. The entire wall is clad with granite, with the names of the dead cut into the granite at the place where the boxed memento resides.
 
 
 

Meridian Light

Each day at mid-day an Event of Light occurs on the Wall of Remembrance. A small piece of sunlight, reflecting from a mirror placed at the north end of the site, falls onto the Wall of Remembrance and moves for several minutes across a north/south Meridian Line inscribed into the granite and across the ground. The Meridian Line (a continuation of the north/south line inscribed into the paved memorial grounds) extends from the ground up to the top of the wall.

  
 
Winter Solstice
September 11
Summer Solstice
 
  At winter solstice, sunlight falls on the Meridian Line at the top of the Wall of Remembrance Reference points are inscribed along the Meridian Line to show when the meridian sun reaches significant dates of September 11 and February 26, as well as the solstices and the equinox At summer solstice sunlight falls on the ground near the center of Ground Zero  

 

Janet Saad Cook's work with sunlight is legendary. Individuals who experience her signature Sun Drawing sculptures are moved to look at their world in new ways and to experience time as motion in harmony with the earth and sky. Examining new ways of working with sunlight, Saad-Cook incorporates one of her architectural sun-marking instruments, Solar Complex, as the centerpiece of the design she created with architect John Paul McGowan for the World Trade Center memorial competition in 2003.
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Last updated 12 May 2008 © Photos and text copyrighted.