There are nearly 150 trees currently on the site now

Community Board 1 heard an update about National 9/11 Memorial visitor access at its monthly World Trade Center (WTC) committee meeting on April 11th. Jim Connors, the Memorial’s Executive Vice President for Operations, reported that his team is actively planning the visitor experience to the plaza, which is slated to open for the 10th anniversary of September 11th.

Connors said that the timed-reservation system is being coordinated, and has the support of several tourism outlets, kiosks, and cultural institutions for visitor-pass distribution. He also showed mock-ups of the signs that will be hung on lights and other signposts, to direct people to the Memorial “welcome area.”

That welcome area is now planned to be a 7,500-square-foot open-air plaza on Albany Street between Greenwich and Washington -- at the southern end of the former 130 Liberty Street site. The plaza will be paved and fenced off, furnished with bike racks, benches and plantings, and hold as many as 700 people at a time. It would be used as the waiting area for Memorial visitors who hold passes according to their assigned times.

From the welcome area, visitors would travel in groups along a dedicated walkway up Washington, west on Cedar, and north on West Street into the Memorial Plaza. They would exit from the same area, near the foot of the Liberty Street Bridge’s eastern stairway.

Connors also reported that the Memorial’s open hours is likely to be from 10 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends, until dusk -- which means the closing time will vary by season.

The Memorial plaza is now on track for September completion, with nearly 150 trees planted and several large artifacts already installed underground. Steel is complete at the Memorial’s entry pavilion, and the glass façade is now being installed ahead of schedule.

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