Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

South Pool

I experienced a very strange and unexpected mix of emotions when we visited the 9/11 Memorial last Thursday. I have no personal connection to the tragedy whatsoever; because of this, I have never felt particularly inclined to visit the memorial; I have always thought that it would just depress me with some sort of tacky memorial attached to a gift shop. However, I realized the truly awe-inspiring effects of the memorial when we first entered and all I could hear was a constant stream of water. The sound was almost deafening. I soon made my way to the South Pool and began staring into it, watching the constant stream of water. There were a number of things that really spoke to me about that scene. Firstly, I saw in a couple of places among the lists of names of the deceased along the side of the pool, names of women and their unborn children who had passed away in the tragedy.

Seeing that made an enormous impact on my state of mind. I could suddenly picture a jovial young woman, probably in her early thirties, making her way to her desk, preparing for another day of work, as her friendly coworkers approach her and ask her when she is due and if she has thought of any names yet. I picture them rubbing her belly, trying to connect with her baby. All of a sudden, there is a deafening earth-shaking crash, and soon…silence. This imagery brought me to the verge of tears. Even now as I write this, it is very emotionally disturbing to picture something so cruel and unfair to a child who has not been brought into the world yet, to someone who has not had the chance to appreciate the warmth and love of others.

Another aspect of the memorial that was very powerful was the structure of each of the pools and the movement of the water within them. When I first approached the South Pool, I found myself wondering why there is a square within the square base of the pool.

Then, I started observing the water around the pool. It seemed very calm, organized, and tranquil. Then, as it reached the edge of the inner square, the cohesive properties of the water molecules began to fall apart as the drops began free-falling in a very randomized motion. I stared at that for a while and wondered if that effect was intentional when this pool was designed. It seemed like the tranquil water around the inner square represented the lives of the people before that tragic day. Everything was normal and peaceful. Then, finally, as their lives led up to that day, just as the water calmly approached the seemingly endless pit, everything became just as chaotic as the water molecules after having reached the edge of the square.

After, I found myself staring at the walls of the pool for quite a long time. I realized after a few minutes that I had been subconsciously forming patterns with the water as it cascaded gracefully down the walls. I took a video of the scene, which you can find above. I also took a few photographs of what I saw.

The patterns I made out on the walls of the water falling down were like flames. It looked like perpetual flames were burning on the walls of the pool, rising and falling gently, succumbing to the force of gravity. Those “flames” really spoke to me. I saw them continue to “burn” for several minutes, just watching them rise and fall, ebb and flow, and I thought to myself that this may have also been a deliberate effect, reminding everyone to never forget the tragedy that took place in this very location. Those “flames” are a perpetual reminder.

Another aspect of the memorial that really inspired me was the survivor tree on the property.

The stump of this tree was about the only surviving organism found after the attacks occurred on that day. With debris piling up to be several hundred feet in height, it is hard for most people to comprehend the idea that something could have survived amidst all of that chaos. This tree is a sign of hope, of miracles, of the idea that something good can prevail when evil seems to be descending from all sides. It also got me thinking about the pregnant women whose names i found along the side of the pools. As the lives of their babies were so unfairly taken, this tree was standing still and strong, demonstrating the full beautiful circle of life, as trite as that may seem as I write it here.

As I was leaving the memorial, one of the final things that caught my eye was the structure of this museum that is currently under construction on the site. The exterior seems to be about complete, but the inside needs much work. This museum has been the subject of much controversy for quite some time now, over what should and should not be included, and in what manner certain things should be included. With as many people affected as there were by the tragedy, it would be just about impossible to please everybody, so the museum remains unfinished. However, what truly caught my eye about this building is its architecture. As seen in this picture, the building has a very unique shape to it, quite unlike the usual rectangular prism we would expect to find among the New York City skyline. The shape is completely irregular with slanted windows. The revolutionary shape seems to be very innovative and modern. I could not help but compare this to the simplicity of the pools built where the North and South towers had once stood. Through simple movements of water, I had found deep meanings behind the pools. This museum, with its modern architecture, speaks to me in the sense that it is looking ahead, into the future, powerfully honoring the memories of those who lost their lives on that unfortunate day.

Its been 11 years since the tragic fall of New York City’s beloved twin towers. September 11, 2001 will forever be remembered as the day that hundreds of people were lost to the rubble that was once the twin towers.

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to visit the 9-11 Memorial that serves to remember and commemorate all those who lost their lives on this tragic day. The memorial consists of two pool; a North pool and a South pool. These pools are built in the dimensions of the buildings. Upon entering the memorial the sound of water rushing down fills our ears and drowns out all sound. The sound is peaceful and immediately draws our attention to the water. The water falls inward similar to how to the towers collapsed. The water is rapidly falling from the sides in a disorderly manner but calms down as it reaches the bottom only to fall down another opening in the middle. This signifies the attack. After the first plane crash there was silence and people thought that the attack was over. However another plane crashed into the second building creating commotion again. Similarly the water falls in a chaotic manner and then becomes calm only to be followed by another chaotic falling. Also, the rushing water is a common element of many memorials as it represents purity and serenity. Around the pools are the names of all those who lost their lives.

Furthermore, unlike many other memorials where the names are engraved into, the names are carved into the sides. I believe that this adds a much more permanent touch to the memorial. Just as the names are carved into the sides, this event has been carved into our memories.

Just before visiting the 9-11 Memorial, we visited the Vietnam War Memorial. This memorial had no waterfall but a large wall. On the wall were engraved letters to the families of the soldiers. These letters written by the Vietnam soldiers conveyed loving messaging giving their regards and ensuring of their safety for the time being.

These two memorials had a very peaceful and calming feeling. This peaceful feeling helped spark a connection and a sense of emotion for the victims of these two events even though I had not known them and therefore the artwork/architecture present at these memorials did just what it was supposed to do.

On Thursday, September 27^th we visited two memorials that were located in Manhattan, the Vietnam Veteran memorial and the 9/11 memorial.

The Vietnam memorial was in secluded place. It seemed as if not many people have visited as they would a regular war memorial. I believe this is because of all the mixed feelings surrounding the Vietnam War.

Vietnam War Wall

Once you enter you can see a great big green wall made up of what seems to be dense glass. What’s interesting about the glass is that it seemed to be transparent in some parts, but denser in others.

However, what was certain was that the writing on the glass was from soldiers who were in the war. These writing were mainly from them to their family members. One of them caught my attention more than the others. It was from a soldier who wrote to his father at his office. He explained to him that he wasn’t going to make it and that he wanted his father to relay the message to his mother because the soldier himself couldn’t do it.

On one side of the memorial there was a fountain. If you stood behind it at a certain angle, it almost sounded as if you heard artillery coming from the water.bIt gave me a feeling of what these soldiers had to go through while they partook in the war. Seeing their words on the wall while hearing the similar sounds they heard gave me a feeling of utmost gratitude. It made me thankful for them, to fight for our country’s beliefs and morals.

The 9/11 memorial was much more crowded. I believe this is the case because 9/11 was a more recent tragedy that erupted a worldwide concern. The 9/11 memorial will be forever held as an vital and essential memorial to the people that suffered during the 9/11 attacks.

9/11 Memorial- South Pool

9/11 Memorial- North Pool

Like the Vietnam Veteran memorial, the 9/11 memorial also used water. There were two vast pools of where the towers once stood. Each in the shape of a square, with a inner square of water as well as you can see from the picture above.  The outer square of water seemed to be more chaotic and the inner square of water seemed to be more at peace. I believe this was designed to convey how it really felt the day of the attacks. Outside the towers, people panicked with fear. It was chaos everyone, especially in Manhattan. But on the inside, it was a grim sober place. People were dying and losing hope for survival. It’s almost as if the water conveyed the spirits of the people who perished in the towers that day.

9/11 Memorial- Roses at na

9/11 Memorial- Rose at Name

Something that distinguished the 9/11 memorial from the Vietnam Veteran memorial was that various people placed yellow roses at the names of their loved ones. I watched in amazement as the family and friends placed roses at the names of their loved ones in tears. It then occurred to me the event that transpired on this ground nearly 11 years ago truly rocked the foundation of the world.

Spending time at memorials allows people to reflect about themselves. It allows them to be thankful for the people that sacrificed their lives, to make our lives easier to live by. Memorials allow us to step into the lives of numerous soldiers/civilians for a moment to grasp what they went through. It finally gave me the chance to thank our fallen heroes for committing the greatest acts of bravery the world has ever seen.

When I first entered the memorial site, I kept looking around for where the waterfalls were. I could only hear the sound of rushing water, but the structure itself was nowhere to be seen. I followed the sound to its source and it slowly came into view. People were crowding around the sides of the waterfall, so I had to walk around before I actually got a spot to take a good look. Before coming to the memorial, I had only seen pictures of the two waterfalls. When I saw it live for the first time that day, I was stunned at its enormity; I had to stand still for a while and take in the whole view.  It was beautiful. Pictures cannot fully depict the memorial’s vastness as well as the feeling of being engulfed by the sound of its rushing falls.

After taking in the initial view, I started looking at the details of the site. What stood out to me was the pattern of the water that was falling. It looked familiar. The original Twin Towers had a similar pattern.

Source: http://www.brianrose.com/blog/category/world-trade-center/page/3/

Whether this was done on purpose or not, I thought it was brilliant. It is a great way to pay tribute for what was originally there.

Although the memorial is beautiful, there was one thing about it that I felt could be made better. Surrounding the waterfalls are names of those who lost their lives on that day. Their names are inscribed in bronze and the metal seems to be painted black. At certain places, the black paint is fading, revealing a yellow color.

This ruins the uniformity of the memorial and it appears old. I thought the designers of the memorial could have done a better job in choosing a suitable material for the names.

Besides that minor problem, I think this memorial is simply stunning and beautiful.

It was my first time visiting the Vietnam and 9/11 memorial. These memorials depressed me when I first stepped in. Both were very touching and made me understand the fraction of the pain the family gone through.

The person who designed the Vietnam memorial did a fantastic job because he/she made the event more real with real letters and quotes. There is one letter about a soldier who knew he was going to die and did not want to tell his mother. His only wish was to be able to tell his mother person to person. That was really touching and I felt so sorry for the person and the family. The simplicity and the colors of the memorial provoke a calm feeling. There was a recently added fountain, which adds to the calm feeling. I found the letters hard to read figuratively and literally because the letters provokes a feeling that people do not enjoy, and literally because the words are basically the same color as the background. It is also cool that the block wall glows.

Similarly the person who designed the 9/11 memorial did a fantastic job because it makes the viewers think. There were two enormous towers before and now there are two large holes. The waterfall is beautiful and the design is very simple. There is only one color black, which tells the viewers that this memorial is not supposed to be showy. The memorial was very organized and the victims were honored well. Like the Vietnam memorial, the waterfalls made the environment very calm and sad in a way. The yellow flowers on some of the names add to the depressed mood that some people have. The survivor tree made me feel sorrier for the victims and the family because I imagine myself in their shoes looking at that tree every day while walking to work.

My experience of the 9/11 Memorial was rather interesting. I didn’t think it would affect me the way it did because I didn’t personally know anyone from the incident. I felt like a tourist, as if I was going to look at the scenery of New York and take pictures and then leave. But that’s when it hit me – that the 9/11 Memorial is a part of the scene of New York. As a New Yorker, we bear the image of the drastic attack that our nation took on that day. While the attack may have not affected me directly, it has affected the way that others see New York. While there, I realized that there were tons of tourists who were there to take pictures and too look at the pools. I realized though that when I walked up to the pool, my first inclination was not too take a picture. I stopped. I paused. I gave the people who lost their lives a small moment of silence. I felt the need to pay respect for these people even though I knew nothing about them. The same happened at the Vietnam War Memorial. I didn’t know any of the heroes who lost their lives, but I read the letters that were on the wall and sympathized with the families who lost their loved ones. Here, I have a picture that shows the letter from the Vietnam War Memorial and the names from the 9/11 Memorial. I took the picture of this particular name because of the rose that I found laying on top of the name. It spoke to me more than just the rest of the names around the pool with no flower. It was like the flower said to me that somewhere in New York was this person’s family and they were still hurt from the days of the attack. But that was all that I could get from it. However, the Vietnam War letter spoke so much to me. It was like this person was real and you could feel like you know more about this person. A letter turns this soldier almost into an acquaintance or someone that was a family friend. I started to imagine what he looks like, or how he died. I wanted to know more about the author of the letter. Whereas in the picture above it, I wanted to visit the victim’s family and comfort them. I wonder if the 9/11 Memorial is all about New York. I feel as if it was meant to inspire unity in New York, as if it was meant to be a way of saying, “Hey, you may not know this person, but what if you had?”
Now to talk a little bit more in depth about what I thought about the pools in the 9/11 Memorial. I thought that they were interesting because of the two effects that one could could get out of them. The water falling from the sides makes a lot of noise and is very chaotic. When you stand close to the pool, it is the only thing that you can hear except for the people who are standing next to you and talking. It’s this chaotic sound that I think is supposed to remind us of the Chaotic events that occurred on this tragic day. It’s too remind us that while everything in New York may be peaceful now, there was a time when things were dark and when things were getting out of hand. Interestingly enough though, the center of the pool looks so calm. I’ve juxtaposed the two pictures because i wanted to make that comparison. The inside of the pool looks like a nice pond, with a small current pushing the water to the center where it is then dropped off into the square hole. Peaceful. The Sides however have the free falling waterfall that crashes to the bottom in obnoxious sound and even causes a white disturbance in the water. The pools are a blend of chaos and peace, almost as an indication of the blend that New York has been in ever since the attack

Finally, I would like to leave off with this last picture. In it, is a line of names that have flowers on them as seen in the earlier picture, but also a nice statement written to the Pilots in the crash. This note was powerful. It had emotion in ways that the flower of the name did. I picked this to include in my post because I was wondering what people thought was more powerful.

Good morning everyone,

Whenever I think about the 9/11 Memorial, I not only remember the loss and suffering thousands of people experienced as a result of the terrorist attacks, but I also remember the fallout, the discriminatory backlash that I personally have experienced as a result of 9/11. Post 9/11, I felt like I was constantly surrounded by Islamophobic, anti-Islamic rhetoric, whether it was on the news or hearing people say things to me. I knew that these were the raw products of insensible, fear-inspired hate, but for many years, I felt like I could do nothing to suade these sentiments, allay the fear, anger, and hate against millions of Muslim Americans, including myself.  As a result of these feelings, I decided to advocate on behalf of Islam by setting the record straight so that one day, the people who know me can automatically know the difference between what Islam actually teaches and terrorism.

 I recorded us actually walking around the 9/11 Memorial before we even saw the South Pool or the Survivor Tree because while we were walking, I had a strange sense of foreboding and mourning in the pit of my stomach. These feelings reached their height when I approached the South Pool.

While I was gazing at the seemingly depthless hole in the South Pool inhaling the faint scent of perfume and sea salt, those initial feelings of anger and frustration created a sort of mental vacuum that prohibited all other thoughts from settling into my mind.  After some time, I noticed the sober colors of the 9/11 Memorial that exacerbated those initial feelings: black, grey, and dark green emphasized my feelings of sadness and oddly, drowning. It was all very strange: the sea salt reminded me of my times walking along the beach, which reflected that horrible sense of drowning.  Needless to say, the 9/11 Memorial had a significant emotional impact on me for some reasons that I cannot describe.

A couple of hours passed before I could actually marvel at the architecture present before me in the form of the South Pool. I admired the clever juxtaposition of the tall, reflective, steel buildings that surrounded the deep, dark pools. The depth of the etched names in the black, cold marble complemented the profundity of my emotions and the depth of the holes in the center of the pools.

All in all, visiting the 9/11 Memorial was a rather interested experience. Feel free to share your own thoughts.

Hi guys,

These are a couple of pictures of the 9/11 memorial.

Besides the two pools, I also found the Survivor Tree really interesting. It’s a pear tree that miraculously survived the September 11 attacks. It was preserved for replanting and now stands as a symbol of hope and rebirth for many people.

article about the tree

It’s interesting to note how the tree looks incomplete, with a gap on one side of the tree.

Hello,

I’ve noticed how many of the newer buildings in Manhattan reflect other buildings especially by the 9/11 Memorial. With the gray skies on the day we went, the building I saw looked almost transparent.

Just imagine what it will be like going there on a sunny day in years from now. As Professor Ugoretz pointed out, the newly planted trees are oak and will grow much taller. Some of the trees will be taken over by ivy and all will provide shade for the benches and perfectly trimmed grass. Along with the breeze from the waterfalls of the pools, the memorial will be like a cool sanctuary from hot summer days. Those murdered should be honored with nothing less than perfection.

I couldn’t really find any piece of art that represented Jamaica, Queens (the place where I grew up), so I decided to show a piece of architecture that was a symbol of Bangladesh, where I went to over the summer.

The Shaheed Minar is a national monument built to memorialize those who lost their lives during the Bengali Language Movement of 1952. It’s the perfect representation of Bangladesh because it’s a symbol of a major reason why Bangladesh became independent – to have the right to its own language. By making demonstrations and fighting for the right to keep their language, many Bengali citizens lost their lives. The Shaheed Minar is both a memorial for those who died and a symbol of the importance of language.

I also decided to share this because we’ve just gone to a couple of memorials – you guys can compare this to the 9/11 and Vietnam memorials. Hope you guys like it!