KEN SMITH WORKSHOP
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE URBANISM ART
 American Express Eleven Tears Memorial, New York, NY
Start Date: 2002 Completion Date: 2003 American Express, Client Ken Smith Landscape Architect, Memorial Designer Dan Euser Water Architecture, Fountain Consultant Lawrence Stoller / CrystalWorks, Artist Jim Conti, Lighting Designer Mehendra Sheth Consulting, Engineering Graham Hansen Design, Graphic Designer Susan Randolph Fine Arts, Art Consultant American Express, Photography Eleven Tears was commissioned by the American Express Corporation in memory of eleven employees who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Located in the ground floor lobby of Three World Financial Center the memorial is within view of the Trade Center site. Water, light, crystal, stone and metal form a powerful presence in the space that is abstract from a distance and intensely personal up close. Water drops fall from an eleven-sided ceiling canopy into an eleven-sided black granite reflecting pool of water. Suspended over the water surface is a 600-pound natural quartz crystal cut with eleven facets that capture and reflect light in a beautiful way. The names of the eleven victims are inscribed in the pool coping and brief remembrances are set into the pool bottom. The falling tear drops create small ripples in the still water of the pool providing a subtle animation and a quiet sound. This was both a difficult and gratifying commission.

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