Pentagon Memorial Design Competition

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Artists, architects, sculptors and students from 43 states, a dozen prestigious academic institutions and two dozen countries are interested in designing the Pentagon Memorial.

Students at Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California want to create a lasting, physical tribute to those who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. International inquiries so far
have come from Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama and the West Indies.

"We've received more than 550 inquiries about the design competition," said Pentagon Memorial Project Manager Carol Anderson-Austra.

The Army Corps of Engineers in Baltimore released requirements and procedures recently for the first stage of the competition to select an artistic concept for the memorial to be built near the impact site on the Pentagon grounds. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 11, the first anniversary of the attack.

The competition is open to all, and to individuals and teams, according to Anderson-Austra. "They don't have to be professional designers or in related fields," she said. "We're getting the word out as much as we can. We're putting out the word to a number of artists.

"I just spoke with a sculptor in New York City who's going to come on a Pentagon site tour that we're offering to the contestants," she noted. "He said, 'It's such an honor to just be
involved.' I told him, 'Everyone feels that way -- all of us at the Corps and at the Pentagon."

About 100 people have signed up for site tours July 26, Aug. 2 and 9. "You just can't beat seeing the site,' Anderson-Austra said. "If there's a lot of demand, we could probably put another day in there, too. People will want to see the site early on so they
can go back home and design."

Entry packets, including a registration form, requirements, site plans, elevations and other background and other guidance are online at memorialcompetition.pentagon.mil. An online registration form will be added soon. Packets also may be obtained by mail by calling 1-866-782-4383, which is toll-free in the United States.

A number of competitors have already registered, but no designs have yet been submitted, Anderson-Austra said. Registering lets Corps officials know if the contestant is an individual or a team of architects or students. "It helps us prepare for the jurying, which we think will be quite an undertaking," she said. The jury will consist of professional architects, artists, academics, Pentagon officials and at least one representative from among the victims' families, she said. Five semifinalists will be chosen who will then be asked to further develop their concepts and create models before a final selection is made.

Anderson-Austra said the vision is the completed memorial should be a place of solace to families whose loved ones died in the Sept. 11 attack. "This needs to represent democracy, the strength of the Pentagon and the country, and many of the positive things that the terrorists wanted to attack and did attack," she added.