5,200 Submit Designs For WTC Memorial

NEW YORK -- A record 5,200 individuals and groups from around the world submitted proposals for a memorial to the victims of the World Trade Center attack, officials announced Thursday.

The submissions came from every U.S. state except Alaska, and 62 nations, said Kevin Rampe, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. The number is a record in a design competition for a memorial, corporation officials said. The previous record was 1,421 submissions for the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"The tremendous response this petition has received from individuals at home and abroad is a true testament of the unity people from around the world have demonstrated since the Sept. 11 attacks," Gov. George E. Pataki said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the submissions "inspiring."

"It is this spirit of humanity that will enable us to honor and memorialize those we lost, and bring New York City from a period of healing into a period of remembrance and hope," he said.

Until a 13-member jury chooses a handful of finalists in the fall, the competition will be veiled in secrecy to protect the integrity of the process.

Applicants had to mail their designs to a warehouse where they were carefully checked for anthrax, chemical agents and explosives. The submissions were then shipped to a second, undisclosed location where the jury will review them.

The competition was open to anyone in the world over the age of 18 who paid a fee of $25. Applicants had until June 30 to submit their designs.

The memorial is to include references to the Feb. 26, 1993, bombing of the trade center as well as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

It is to be built on a 4.7-acre site encompassing the so-called "footprints" of the twin towers.

The jurors chosen to pick a design includes Vietnam Veterans' Memorial designer Maya Lin and Paula Grant Berry, whose husband, David, was killed at the trade center.

They will choose approximately five finalists in September and will select a final design later in the fall.

The applicants will be anonymous until the finalists are announced.

Anita Contini, who heads the memorial process for the development corporation, thanked everyone who submitted a design and said, "Simply by participating, each competitor honors and helps memorialize all those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, and each is a contributor to the nation's healing process."

Rampe, who joined Contini at a news conference at the agency's downtown office, said, "The outpouring of support for this memorial is truly moving."

The 5,200 submissions include some that will be disqualified because the applicants did not follow the published guidelines, Contini said, but she said the jury would see all of them.

Because of the requirement of anonymity, anyone who made his or her design public would be disqualified, but a few applicants have publicized the fact that they entered the competition.

"I'm thrilled that there's a very vibrant level of interest," said William Stratas, a Toronto Web developer who is part of a three-person team that submitted a proposal. "I believe that even if you don't make finalist you do have the opportunity to sculpt the result."