Possible WTC Memorial Changes

Yesterday it was announced that some changes to the World Trade Center Memorial were recommended by building consultant Frank Sciame, who was asked by Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to find ways to bring the Memorial in line with a $500 million budget.

The key revision is that the WTC victims' names will be displayed above ground now instead of below, as the family groups had wanted. Sciame also hoped that the names not be listed in random order, and that a way be found to accommodate those who want the names listed together.

Other changes recommended by The Sciame Report are:

Shrinking the size of the memorial museum (on one level instead of multi-leveled).

Removing portions of the galleries around the pools where the names were to be listed.

Consolidating all entrances into a visitors’ center.

Recalculating previous cost estimates and slashing $11 million from the estimated $61 million in annual operating expenses.

Of course these are just recommendations. Exactly what the Port Authority and the LMDC do is still to be determined. They have their own agendas, and have been known to say one thing and do something completely different. It is now hoped that the building of the Memorial's foundation will finally get under way next month.