Meaningful adjacencies

The reflecting pools of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum are surrounded by the names of the thousands who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 — but the order of the names is not well known. The architects behind the memorial design came up with a concept they called “meaningful adjacencies.” That concept shows the web of relationships of the victims and personalizes each name. The sorting of the nearly 3,000 names, however, was an arduous, years-long process of research and organization. Pat Kiernan speaks with the architect who took on this task to ensure each victim and their relationships would be recognized — and that their families could gather on visits for years to come.

The reflecting pools of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum are surrounded by the names of the thousands who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 — but the order of the names is not well known. The architects behind the memorial design came up with a concept they called “meaningful adjacencies.” That concept shows the web of relationships of the victims and personalizes each name. The sorting of the nearly 3,000 names, however, was an arduous, years-long process of research and organization. Pat Kiernan speaks with the architect who took on this task to ensure each victim and their relationships would be recognized — and that their families could gather on visits for years to come.