Features
The 9/11 Memorial
The main memorial to remember the Al Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States is of course in Manhattan where the World Trade Centre with its tall twin towers were rammed by two commercial planes hijacked by jihadists. The planes were flown slap-bang into the towers. Iconic photographs and video clips captured the flames that burst on the higher floors of the North Tower and later South Tower and billowing smoke soon to be followed by the total collapse of the giant building. It all happened on a particularly sunny bright morning on September 11, 2001.
The New York memorial carries the name National September 11 Memorial & Museum and is also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. It commemorates also the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing which killed six. It is operated by a non-profit institution.
Preliminaries
A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath to remember the victims and those involved in rescue and recovery operations. A competition was announced in 2004 and the winner was Israeli-American architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects based in New York and San Francisco. He worked with the landscape-architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners, creating a forest of swamp white oak trees with two square reflecting pools in the centre marking where the Twin Towers had stood. Work started in August 2006 consistent with the original master plan of Daniel Libeskind, which was of a memorial to be 30 ft below street level. It was named in 2007 
On Sept. 9, the 20th anniversary was marked with ceremonies conducted at the Manhattan Museum, the Pentagon and in Shakesville, Pennsylvania; all three attended by President Biden and the First Lady.’Solemn and sincere, absolutely appropriate’ were words that came to mind as I watched the events on BBC News. I am particularly struck by the two bluish, thin bands of light that rise from the devastated place – symbolic of the iconic towers,
You may wonder why I write about a memorial that is so far removed from us. My interest was first engaged when an architect resident in the US told me that a co-student of his at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, had won the competition with his submitted memorial design. Also another woman New Yorker invariably pointed out the Manhattan skyline with pride when the Twin Towers dominated it, and very sadly when in their place was empty space when I was visiting. I did not see the memorial as by then I had given up visits overseas. But interest remained.
I was told that Michael Arad was probably inspired in his design by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a national memorial in Washington DC close to the Lincoln Memorial to honour servicemen who fought in the Vietnam War (1955-75). It’s a two acre site dominated by a black granite wall engraved with names of those who died. Thus perhaps the dominance of black marble walls in the 9/11 Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial was designed by American architect Maya Lin and is ranked tenth on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects. The Twin Towers are listed but I did not find the 9/11 Memorial in the long list I skimmed through.
The 9/11 Memorial has its unique features. I was told that the judges who selected Arad’s design recognized his concept of ‘reflection on absence’. The names of all who died are listed and were repeated by pairs of relatives or friends of those who had died at the ceremony in Manhattan this September 11. The memorial is minimalistic, my architect-informant says; seeing pictures of it what strikes me is its solemn starkness.
The architect
Michael Arad was born in 1969 in London where his father, Moshe Arad, a former Israeli ambassador to the US and Mexico, was on a diplomatic mission. Michel lived in Jerusalem for nine years. Then moving to the US, he received his bachelor’s degree from Daartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and master’s from Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture. He moved to New York in 1999 and submitted his design for the memorial while working for the New York City Housing Authority.
“The design proposes a space that resonates with the feelings of loss and absence that were generated by the death and destruction of the World Trade Centre,” Arad stated. Initially the design was criticized for its starkness and failure to differentiate civilian victims from those who died in the line of duty. Thus a revised design in conjunction with Walker was submitted and accepted. The cost, estimated at $1 billion was also criticized as too much, but this is a commemoration of nearly 4,000 lives lost; intended to last long.
I quote from what Arad said in an article I read: “I’m actually very proud of the way the Memorial came out. There may have been substantial changes during the eight year design process, but we were able to hold on to the foundational elements and ideas. For that, I’m very grateful because it could’ve become something really different.”
Michael Arad lives in Queens, New York with wife Melani Fitzpatrick and three children.
Sri Lankan monuments
I cannot resist writing about our local monuments. To commemorate the dead, the best is that at Horagolla, called the Horagolla Samadi. After SWRD Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959, the building of a memorial was decided on. A ‘one rupee fund’ was inaugurated to collect funds for the construction requesting the public to contribute just a rupee each; fair enough. PBG Kalugalla was manager of fund and the mausoleum built under the 
Different in every way is the memorial to D A Rajapaksa built in Medamulana by his sons. D A Rajapaksa was an MP for long, Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Speaker. The memorial is said to be colossal and extravagant and caused controversy and even a court case, I believe, due to the accusation it was built by the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLRDC) funds costing 33.9 million.
We have a so called national monument – Lotus Tower also called Colombo Lotus Tower; 350 m high and supposedly a symbolic landmark of Sri Lanka. Cost US$ 104.3 m paid by EXIM Bank of China. A gift or to be repaid for? If the latter, yet another vanity building. It is supposed to house communication hardware and cater to leisure time of locals. I approved of symbolism until the lotus bud was appropriated by a political party. An architect (college contemporary of Michael Arad) exposed to many modern architectural wonders of the world used the harsh words – garish and showy and not keeping with subdued aesthetic sense and beauty as exhibited by our ancient sites and statues.
Another recently declared open national ‘monument’ is the National Sandalwood Park at Battaramulla aka Jathika Sandun Uyana. Far too structured and too much stone and cement against the trees, rendering them insignificant.
We in this island have so much aesthetic beauty and subtle magnificence in our ancient sites, buildings and statues. The Samadhi statue in Anuradapura, Gal Vihara, Aukana Buddha statue, Why go in for too many flourishes and garish colouring? That is NOT our innate, inherited cultural style.