Michael Arad

The moody designer of the World Trade Center Memorial came across as chastened and media-coached this morning at yet another Ground Zero ceremony (this one to mark "construction of the footings for the memorial," although in reality only "excavation work to build the foundations" began).

"I'm very gratified to be here today," he told a crowd of reporters. "Today we are starting construction. This is a process and I'm looking forward to the completion of this process but it's an incredible moment to be here today and see it begin."

A hint of his deeper feelings came through when Arad, known for his reluctance to compromise and scale down his design, was asked about the emotional process of designing the memorial.

"The process of designing the memorial was very difficult. It began as a very private process and now it involves so many people," he said.

Staff from the WTC Memorial Foundation tried to cut off further questions, but reporters were not having it. Nor was Michael Arad.  read more »

"What I think is most important about this process is that it continues to move forward and we have to make some of these changes to address concerns, whether they are structural or financial," he continued. "But the most important thing right now is to preserve the integrity of the memorial, to create a space where people will come together and find meaning and find other people who will be at this memorial with them and give them the emotional resonance...."

This coming from someone who once said of the memorial redesign process, "I have no choice but to fight them every step of the way." -Matthew Schuerman

• In the course of Nicolai Ouroussoff's recap of the Ground Zero memorial fisasco he politely suggests that architect Michael Arad "could consider stepping aside," and less politely declares: "Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg got it exactly wrong." (The New York Times)
• And yesterday's Daily News reported that a federally banned construction company is working (for millions of dollars) at Ground Zero. And the guys have lots of explosives. If even a turncoat nicknamed Mikey Scars says that a group is mobbed up, shouldn't Larry Silverstein listen? His spokesman doesn't seem to think so.(New York Daily News)
• NYC's share of middle-income families is smaller than any other American city's (except, of course, LA), and our middle-income neighborhoods are "vanishing." The culprits are gentrification (even in "more marginal" areas) and the "bunching of high-income families in more homogenous surroundings." Brave rich people always stick together. (The New York Times)
• Might another culprit be the growing slice of residents' gross income that rents demand? The local numbers are passing the disturbing "maximum threshold," which means three out of ten dollars earned by New Yorkers go to the landlord. (The Real Deal)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

Memorial designer Michael Arad goes public with his battle against "them" in this week's New York:

"I have no choice but to fight them every step of the way," says Arad. "I can't tell you how many other stupid ideas have been proposed over the last two years."

-Matthew Schuerman

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation came out with a press release formally acknowledging the new, higher estimates for Michael Arad's design, as reported this morning, and breaking out the $300 million infrastructure separately. In fact, the release never mentions the figure $300 million:

[T]he Foundation and by extension, its private donors, should not have to pay for site-wide infrastructure costs which include structural systems, mechanical fit out of the central chiller plant, and a police and emergency operations center.

Full release after jump.  read more »

Ground Zero memorial designer Michael Arad is pushing to gain total control of the project's $350 mi  read more »

An architect who lives in the East Village and works for the city Housing Authority has won the comp  read more »