MEMORIAL

PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2005 - 2020

The Flight 93 National Memorial is a new 2,200-acre national park at the site in Western Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001. The first 21st century U.S. national park transforms the site, formerly a coal mine, into a designed memorial landscape that commemorates the 40 heroes on Flight 93 who gave their lives thwarting a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital.

The design was selected among 1,100 entries through a two-stage, international design competition in 2005. In the first stage, Paul Murdoch Architects presented a master plan with key memorial features, such as a tower with 40 wind chimes, a large curving landform with memorial trees framing a field of honor, long tall memorial walls that frame the flight path and enclose a visitor center, and a memorial plaza along the edge of the crash site, culminating in a ceremonial gate and wall of names. In the second stage, a team of consultants helped develop the design concept, including an association with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

The memorial design enhances the qualities and physical features of the site for its expressive power. The experience of moving through a restored site of varied characteristics, including along the crash site – now hallowed ground; around a former strip mine – now a native meadow and field of honor (a common field one day…a field of honor forever); and over wetlands – now part of a storm water system, uses healing of the land to reflect the growth and healing possible for people who come visit this place. It focuses visitors’ attention on the crash site and presents a variety of open space experiences developed over fifteen years through several phases of a master plan.

The first phase, dedicated on 9/10/2011, includes an entry road, re-grading of the large field of honor, and memorial features adjacent to the crash site. The second phase, dedicated on 9/10/2015, includes a new visitor center with enclosing memorial walls, a flight path walkway, a learning center and a pedestrian bridge over restored wetlands.

The visitor center is located between two ascending concrete memorial walls where the flight path crosses the edge of a large bowl-shaped field that was formerly an openpit coal mine. The large site walls conceal approaching views of the Field of Honor. A walkway aligned with the flight path orients visitors to the direction of the plane overhead on 9/11 and leads through tall narrow portals to an overlook of the expansive field and crash site below. From the visitor center, a walk east through the formal alle or west down a meandering path leads to the edge of the crash site and wall of inscribed names of the passengers and crew.

The plane crashed at the edge of this open field in front of a grove of hemlock trees, burning many of the trees. This hemlock grove is the backdrop to the crash site, the focal point for the entire memorial experience. The distinct structure of the trees, with a straight, tall trunk and alternating angled branches, is the inspiration for the design motif expressed in materials throughout the memorial.

To keep the modestly sized visitor center interior from becoming cluttered and overwhelming, displays are limited to five double-sided, freestanding exhibit walls. Archival exhibit material that is sensitive to natural light is protected by careful location of building apertures and high-performance glazing of various types, thereby allowing the interior to be visually connected with the memorial landscape. The interior wall facing the crash site features black-stained precast concrete panels with a hand-hewn hemlock finish, thus recalling the charred hemlock trees burned by the crash.

The final major phase, completed in 2020, features the Tower of Voices, a monumental, 93-feet tall musical instrument holding 40 wind chimes, commemorating the 40 passengers and crewmembers on the plane. As a gateway landmark, it is the primary memorial feature near the entrance to the park and a living memorial in sound to remember the 40 through their ongoing voices.

As a unique musical feature, the tower required an interactive design process of testing and simulation involving musical tuning theory to establish the right tones, chime mock-ups for 3D recordings and movement testing, computational fluid dynamic modeling to test tower shapes, and acoustic simulation in a sound lab to digitally test chime resonance and combinations.

PAUL MURDOCH ARCHITECTS

FEATURED WORK FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL PENNSYLVANIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2005-2020

DESIGN TEAM - PHASE I

2005 - 2011

Architect

Paul Murdoch Architects

Landscape Architect

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Civil Engineer

The Eads Group

Civil Engineer RBA Partners

Structural Engineer Sato & Boppana

MEP Engineer HF Lenz Company

Lighting Design George Sexton & Associates

Graphic Design Impact Design Associates

Typography Design Ana Llorente

Security Design Sako & Associates

Cost Consultant Davis Langdon

Specifications

Capital Specs

Image Credits Drawings

Paul Murdoch Architects

Renderings bioLINIA & Paul Murdoch Architects

Paul Murdoch Architects

Paul Murdoch, Milena Murdoch, Eric

Cunningham, Kin Lee, Charles Lee, Victor Garcia

DESIGN TEAM - PHASE II

2011 - 2015

Architect

Paul Murdoch Architects

Landscape Architect Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Civil Engineer HF Lenz Company

Geotechnical Engineer Garvin Boward Beitko

Structural Engineer Silman

MEP Engineer HF Lenz Company

Lighting Design George Sexton & Associates

Graphic Design Linespace

Security Design Sako & Associates

Cost Consultant Davis Langdon Adamson

Exhibit Design Gallagher & Associates

LEED Zinner Consultants

Specifications Chew Specifications

Constructability Yuk Chan

Image Credits Drawings

Paul Murdoch Architects

Renderings bioLINIA & Paul Murdoch Architects

Paul Murdoch Architects

Paul Murdoch, Milena Murdoch, Eric Cunningham, Dean Perton, Kin Lee, Victor Garcia, Charles Lee, Will Longyear, Peter Rindelaub, Chris Feldman, Juan Garcia, Luv Khot