The children had become a design team, identifying themselves as the "World Trade Center Memorial Park Designers" and, even after the completion of the blueprint, were engaging in creative thought about the possibility of having their park built.
Later in the year, the children attended the World Trade Center Memorial Exhibition. The following are some of the observations and discussions that the children had concerning different proposals for the memorial.
Kissing Towers
Joeline: This is disrespectful because it looks like the twin towers but it isn't, it's sad.
Alex: It's too futuristic. There's no such building ever like this before. And it is too easy to hit, an airplane could just go into the curved part of the building and it would collapse immediately. It would be like the past is repeating. No, no, I hate this one. You know what you need in every building that is over 83 stories? You need a train where the people just hop onto an express elevator to take them down to the train and away. Lots of trains could be there. There would be ventilators and oxygen masks and maybe even more than one elevator.
New York Garden
Alex: Oh no! I don't believe this, it's a STADIUM! How disrespectful.
Amy (teacher): It's actually an amphitheater, and look there is one seat for every person that died, 2,797 seats.
Jacob: That's just wrong. Imagine, watching movies you know, regular ones, like 007 James Bond, in a memorial park. No, that's wrong... action movies.
Joeline: That is just so wrong. I mean, people died and we are going to watch people blowing each other up (in movies) with bombs and fires? No, and sit on the seats? No that's awful! And ours is much lower to the ground, you don't want a huge theater, that's not safe, a plane could crash into it.
Richard Meier Design
Alex: This one looks like a puzzle. If this one gets built we'll have to make sure Jacob's bridge curves or else it won't connect.
Jacob: The buildings look like a fence around our park.
Sky Park
Alex: I don't like it. It's ugly and the glass could break.
Jacob: It takes up too much space. They could all be built closer together.
Alex: This is just too much. I wish they could just build the exact same thing that was there in the first place. The entire center, all 7 buildings again, the same height, the exact same thing... you know?
Jacob: You can't concentrate here. All these new futuristic, you know, they make you look at the cool buildings, but you can't concentrate on meditating. You can't rest. I want there to be two towers again.
Jamila: This is nice. If you are way up high it's good for a memorial because when people die they go up. So a memorial in the sky means you can be right there.
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Joeline: If they put a big hotel there it's just disrespectful.
Alex: This design is too into the future. They'd spend the whole money on welding. They'd have to weld the metal and it's too expensive. Our park is much simpler and easier to build.
Jacob: Right, but our park is not too simple.
Alex: No, this is too futuristic. People will be thinking it's 4003 not 2003.
Vertical City
Alex: It's good because terrorists will go into one and it won't make the other ones fall down too, because they are all spaced out.
Joeline: But what if nine terrorist planes came, then they would all be knocked down.
Jacob: It's a good structure because the towers are hidden behind each other so you can't knock them all down if you crash a plane into the site.
Joeline: Our design is much safer because it's all on one level.
Alex: Ours doesn't dent in, there are no creases to crumble or crack. It's closer to the ground.
Joeline: It's like a ship anchored, but it wont sink.
United Architects
Alex: WOW! This is the coolest one. Yes! I like the way it's shaped. It just looks good...I think it may even be better than ours!
Jacob: If two could win they would have to pick ours and this one.
Alex: Ours could be surrounding this on the water. That bridge there could be connected to ours.
Jacob: Amy, can we make our memorial park out of blocks in the block area?
Alex: We can start on Monday!
