ATLANTA — As the nation marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, millions continue to visit the National September 11 Memorial, a place designed to honor the victims and help heal a nation.
The memorial’s lead architect, Michael Arad, has a connection to metro Atlanta. Arad is a graduate of Georgia Tech and credits lessons he learned there with helping shape his vision for the memorial at Ground Zero.
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In the days following the attacks, Arad found himself drawn to public spaces where people gathered to grieve together.
“The sights of that day are seared in my memory,” Arad said. He recalled finding comfort in civic spaces where strangers could stand side by side and share a sense of connection.
Those experiences inspired sketches that eventually became his entry in an international design competition for the memorial.
Arad said his submission deliberately challenged the competition’s guidelines.
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“It’s almost as a protest vote, like a letter to the editor,” he said. “I sent in a proposal that ignored the guidelines and said, ‘I don’t think this is the right direction.’”
His design was selected from more than 5,000 entries submitted from more than 60 countries, winning the competition in 2004.
Arad said one of his most influential mentors was late Georgia Tech architecture professor Doug Allen, who taught him to see cities differently. That lesson helped shape two central ideas behind the memorial: creating a civic gathering space and finding a way to represent the immense loss left by the attacks.
For eight years, Arad and his team refined the memorial’s design before it opened to the public.
Today, the site features two massive reflecting pools in the footprints of the Twin Towers. The names of the 2,983 victims of the 2001 and 1993 attacks are etched into bronze panels surrounding the pools.
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Arad said the names were arranged to reflect personal relationships and connections among the victims.
“There’s a hidden web of connections between these names that most visitors might not be aware of,” Arad said. “For friends and family members, when they come up to a panel and see two names side by side and know about the relationship between them, it’s very meaningful.”
A quarter century after the attacks, Arad said the memorial remains a place of remembrance and healing.
“It doesn’t get easier,” he said. “For some, coming here is still too hard. I hear that a lot. I understand that. The site will be there when people are ready.”
Arad said the memorial continues to evolve. A project currently in development would allow visitors to hear stories about victims directly from relatives and friends while visiting the site.
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