Pennsylvania’s Sept. 11 memorial is redesigned

Designers have made a bowl-shaped piece of land the centerpiece of a Flight 93 memorial, replacing a crescent-shaped design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday.

The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash near Shanksville, Pa., features most of the details of the original, which victims’ relatives helped select after a worldwide design competition.

But a round, bowl-shaped area would replace a “Crescent of Embrace,” a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees.

After the original design was unveiled in September, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) criticized it in a letter to the National Park Service director, saying many questioned the shape “because of the crescent’s prominent use as a symbol in Islam -- and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists.”

Paul Murdoch, president of Los Angeles-based Paul Murdoch Architects, which designed the memorial, had called the criticism of the crescent an “unfortunate diversion,” but said that they were sensitive to the concerns.

In both old and new versions of the design, a tower with 40 wind chimes would welcome visitors to the site, where they could then walk to a large circular field ringed by 40 groves of red and sugar maple trees, symbolizing the 40 passengers and crew who died. There will also be pedestrian trails, a plaza from which to view the crash site, and a white marble wall with the victims’ names inscribed.

Gordon Felt, of Remsen, N.Y., whose brother, Edward Felt, died in the crash, said he didn’t believe the original design honored the hijackers but nonetheless he is pleased with the changes.

“My concern is that we have a memorial that honors my brother and the 39 other brave Americans that were on Flight 93 in a respectful way that not only respects their lives but respects the topography of the land,” Felt said Wednesday.

In the Flight 93 National Memorial’s newsletter, Murdoch described the new design as an “evolution” of what was announced two months ago, reflecting input from the public, the competition’s jury and others.

The circle enhances the earlier design by putting more emphasis on the crash site, officials said in the newsletter.

The original design was selected by a jury made up of design professionals and family and community members. A projected date for the opening has not been set.