Park Includes 184 'Sculptural Elements' To Honor Victims
The husband-and-wife team who designed the Pentagon Memorial
spent a gray, misty afternoon with their creation Thursday, two
weeks before its public opening.
Keith Kaseman's and Julie Beckman's proposal for the memorial's
design was chosen from more than 1,100 submissions in March 2003.
Soon afterward, the New Yorkers moved to Alexandria, VA near
Washington, where for more than three years they worked with
construction plans and fine-tuned design details.
The memorial, Beckman said as she strolled across the grounds
with her husband, will provide a "very special place on Earth"
dedicated to the memory of the 184 people who died in the September
11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
The memorial "is very contemplative, very peaceful," Beckman
observed.
Located just outside the Pentagon, the memorial park features
184 granite-topped, stainless-steel "sculptural elements," said
Jean Barnak (below), the Defense Department's project manager for
the memorial. These elements, she said, represent the 125 lives
lost in the Pentagon and the 59 deaths aboard American Airlines
Flight 77 when terrorists plunged the plane into the Pentagon's
west wall.
Each element has a reflecting pool of water at its base, Barnak
said, which is flood-lit in the evening. The families of the attack
victims also had a hand in the memorial's design, she said.
"Throughout the whole process, the families wanted to make sure
that the designers were creating a park where people could come and
remember and reflect and renew," Barnak said.
Kaseman, the memorial's co-designer, said he and his wife
employed a sophisticated, three-dimensional, computer-aided design
program during the memorial's modeling process. Such precision was
necessary, he pointed out, noting that each sculptural element
contains eight primary structural components involving 28 different
companies.
"That's just one example of how unique and challenging" the
project was, Kaseman said. "So, it's a major success on an
intellectual front, as well."
Barnak said she's very pleased with the memorial, noting that
its gracefully curved structures, trees, and the soft sound of
rushing water from the reflecting pools combine to produce a sense
of peace and tranquility.
"I am conscious of the fact that this park does do that for
people when they come out here," Barnak said.
The memorial will be officially dedicated at a September 11
ceremony hosted by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Thereafter,
it will be open to the public 24 hours a day.
(Aero-News thanks Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press
Service)