LMDC Names Advisory Committee for WTC Memorial Center

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced April 8 the formation of an advisory committee to guide in the selection process of archives, artifacts and personal stories to be exhibited in the Memorial Center at the World Trade Center site.

The newly named World Trade Center Memorial Center Advisory Committee includes preservationists, historians, and curators. The committee also includes downtown residents, rescue workers, survivors and victim's family members whose voices LMDC Chairman John Whitehead called key in relating the story of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

"More than anyone, they know the stories that need to be conveyed to future generations," Whitehead said. "There are many stories of those difficult days. Stories of lives cut short, stories of heroism and stories of helplessness."

The Memorial Center, to be integrated into the Memorial complex at the WTC site, will include stories, photos and artifacts from 9/11 and from the 1993 bombing. The committee will make its recommendations to the LMDC Board's Memorial Working Group. The recommendations will first be submitted to the public for review and comment.

The committee includes representatives from historical museums, city agencies and commissions, architects and universities.

"We recognized early on than no one entity could completely tell the story," said Tom Eccles, director and curator of the Public Art Fund and a member of the LMDC Memorial Mission Statement Drafting Committee. Eccles will serve on the advisory committee.

The LMDC chose St. Paul's Chapel as a backdrop for making the announcement.

"This Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers after 9/11 and serves as a constant reminder of our past," LMDC president Kevin Rampe said, noting the Memorial Center aims to be a similar place where people can go to "remember, reflect and draw meaning."

Virginia Bauer, a 9/11 widow and member of the LMDC Families Advisory Council, said the committee's obligation was to find a way to tell the story for future generations.

"I am confident that our generation will never forget what occurred," she said. "I do feel a responsibility to insure that the site's history be told accurately for future generations."

The 24-member committee is set to begin work April 20. A timeline for the committee's recommendations has not been set, Rampe said.