This week, Paul Goldberger considers the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero, designed by the young architect Michael Arad in collaboration with the landscape architect Peter Walker. He writes, “Early on, public officials made the sensible decision that, whatever happened at the site, nothing new would rise exactly where the Twin Towers had stood. Arad didn’t tiptoe around the footprint; instead he made it the basis for a strong, almost minimalist design, turning the footprint of each tower into a square hole, with waterfalls running down the sides into a reflecting pool below. At the center of each reflecting pool is another, smaller square, into which water tumbles, as if it were flowing to the center of the earth. Arad figured out how to express the idea that what were once the largest solids in Manhattan are now a void, and he made the shape of this void into something monumental.” Watch a time-lapse video of the memorial’s construction.


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