National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center

The design and construction of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center is one of the most significant undertakings in the history of New York City, and a focal point for the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. As Associate Architects, Davis Brody Bond oversaw the design of Michael Arad and Peter Walker’s Reflecting Absence memorial. Our executive work on the 8.5 acre Memorial Plaza shepherded this powerful design through numerous technical challenges. Davis Brody Bond is the designer of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum.

The Museum was conceived as the global focal point for presenting and preserving the history and memories of the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of the attacks, and exploring their enduring significance. Located nearly 70 feet beneath the 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center, the Museum occupies the vast space at the remaining traces of the two towers inscribed in bedrock. The 110,000-sf museum offers visitors access to the monumental underground site where remnants of the Trade Center’s construction and recovery frame the story of the terrorist attacks and the days that followed.

Entering through a pavilion on the Memorial Plaza, visitors descend onto the Concourse Lobby, a place of orientation and the beginning of a gently sloped path, referred to as “the Ribbon,” that runs to bedrock. At key points, overlooks reveal artifacts and historic resources including abstractions of the tower volumes faced in aluminum floating above the original column bases. One’s journey culminates alongside the “Survivors’ Stair” that led hundreds to safety on September 11th. Throughout the museum a palette of limited materials that is restrained in appearance enables visitors to have individual responses to the artifacts and exhibit contents, such as the surviving slurry wall, the “Last Column,” and the box columns of the original World Trade Center.

The Museum opened to the public on May 21, 2014 and anticipates receiving LEED® Gold certification.