WTC Memorial Contest Draws Biggest Ever Contingent of Competitors

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, May 31, 2003

WTC Memorial Contest Draws Biggest Ever Contingent of Competitors

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More than 13,000 people from all 50 American states, and 94 countries and regions in the world have registered for the World Trade Center (WTC) memorial design competition, redevelopment officials told a press conference on Friday.

This represents the largest number of registrants for any design competition, said Kevin Rampe, interim president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.. But he cautioned that it remained to be seen how many people would actually submit their designs.

A total of 11,370 registrants are from the United States, with New York ranking top with 4,598 people, followed by 1,151 from California, and 922 from New Jersey.

Meanwhile, 2,500 people registered for the Pentagon memorial competition, and 1,126 submitted entries that met the competition rules. Manhattan architects Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman won that competition, with benches and trees for each victim of the Sept. 11 terror attack on the Pentagon.

The Oklahoma City memorial competition, held to honor the victims of the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Office Building, attracted 4,800 registrants and 627 submissions. Butzer Design Partnership, now based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, won that competition.

The competitors are required to design their memorial proposals within the 4.7 acres designated for the memorial by architect Daniel Libeskind, who won the competition to redesign the 16-acre WTC site. Libeskind will assist the winning designer to integrate the design into the site.

Rampe told would-be designers to "be bold, be daring, be unconventional."

In a gesture to firefighters and rescuers lobbying to have their workplaces listed, Rampe said nothing in the competition rules prohibits -- or requires -- the listing of jobs or job titles.

But he said the issue was best left to the creative minds of the thousands of designers, and the jury. He noted that New York state Governor George Pataki, New York city mayor, Michael Bloomberg and former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, would meet with the 13-member jury.

The jurors will sort through thousands of designs and select five finalists sometime this summer. The jury is expected to select a winner in October.

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