Is designing a war memorial different from commemorating other human tragedies?
I believe that memorials designed to remember national/international tragedies such as the recent acts of terrorism are distinctly different from memorials that remember wars. The difficulty for the designer — in fact, for everyone — is to first comprehend, understand and absorb the causes of these events. Tragedies, as distinct from wars, are mostly caused by natural circumstances: volcanic eruption, plague, famine, flood or human error (the sinking of the Titanic, Chernobyl, etc.). Terrorism of a global scale is a new phenomenon. Cause and effect are just beginning to emerge. The Holocaust was a crime of international scope and its memorials offer a precedent for future memorials to our recent national tragedy. Have you thought any differently of your own design of the memorial since 9/11? 9/11 has had an emotional impact on everybody. We think that the world has changed once again. But we have yet to comprehend its full meaning and ultimate consequences. To the extent that the WWI