The Preview Site Reaches Milestone Less than One Year After Opening to Provide the Public With a Preview of the National Tribute Being Built in Honor of the nearly 3,000 People Killed on September 11, 2001
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum welcomed its one millionth visitor to the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, on August 3 2010, a space devoted to educating the public about the Memorial and Museum under construction at the World Trade Center site.
National September 11 Memorial at Night
The milestone was reached less than a year after the Preview Site opened its doors at 20 Vesey St. in lower Manhattan on August 26, 2009. It was established to provide the public with an opportunity to learn about the Memorial and Museum, see construction progress and record their own 9/11 stories for use in future Museum exhibits. To date, more than 2,900 people have recorded their 9/11 story in more than 10 different languages at the Preview Site.
“We are proud to have established a space where a million people have already visited in less than a year’s time and had the opportunity to learn about the lives stripped away on 9/11 and about the Memorial and Museum being built in their honor,” 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. “It was equally important to us to provide clear and authoritative information about the September 11 attacks and the remarkable expressions of volunteerism, public service, and compassion that characterized our response to them.”
9/11 Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald and 9/11 Memorial Board Member Anthoula Katsimatides, whose brother John was killed in the September 11 attacks, presented the one millionth visitor with a certificate for a dedicated cobblestone that will be permanently placed on the Memorial Plaza on behalf of the visitor, joining other supporters in the ongoing cobblestone campaign.
“This cobblestone represents the hope that we aspire in visitors next year at our Memorial and Museum,” Memorial Board Member Anthoula Katsimatides said. “We are so grateful to the overwhelming number of people who come to the Preview Site to pay tribute to our loved ones and help ensure they are not forgotten.”
The Preview Site has had visitors from at least 63 different countries, according to an internal survey* on visitation in the first two quarters of 2010.
Visitors from the United States totaled 47 percent, while 53 percent were international tourists. In the United States, visitors came from 47 different states with California, New York and Texas in the top three. The majority of international visitors traveled from England and Canada.
At the Preview Site, architectural models and renderings of the project are displayed to show what the World Trade Center
Through a partnership with Project Rebirth, a short film was exclusively produced for viewing at the Preview Site. Project Rebirth, a feature-length documentary film, combines personal stories and powerful time lapse images of construction to capture the journey of the New York community as it rebuilds after the 9/11 attacks.
In partnering with EarthCam, a webcam of live construction images of the Trade Center site can be viewed on specially-designed electronic kiosks at the Preview Site. Visitors can print the images or e-mail them to friends.
Visitors also can help contribute to the Museum by sharing their 9/11 stories. An on-site recording booth allows the public to record their stories for the Museum’s planned introductory exhibition, which will feature a soundscape of people’s voices remembering – in multiple languages – where they were on September 11, 2001, and how they learned of the attacks. To date, more than 2,900 people have recorded their 9/11 story in more than 10 different languages.
There are also keepsakes available for purchase at the Preview Site with all net proceeds going toward the building and ongoing operations of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
The Preview Site is located at 20 Vesey St. in lower Manhattan and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information on the Preview Site and to learn more about how to sponsor a cobblestone, visit www.national911memorial.org or call 212.267.2047.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a not-for-profit corporation created for overseeing the design, funding, programming and operation of the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site. The Memorial and Museum will occupy eight acres of the 16-acre site.
The Memorial will remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools constructed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers, surrounded by a plaza of sweet gum and swamp white oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a competition that included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations.
The Museum will display monumental artifacts associated with the events of September 11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of September 11 and its aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national, and international communities; and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.
*For the survey, 1,500 visitors were selected randomly during business hours Monday through Sunday.
National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor New York, NY 10006
Telephone: 212.312.8800
Fax: 212.227.7931
www.national911memorial.org