The Memorial Plaza is scheduled to be complete by September 11, 2011

At Monday’s Community Board 1 World Trade Center (WTC) committee meeting, board members took a virtual tour of the National 9/11 Memorial’s 100,000-square-foot subterranean Museum. Museum Director Alice Greenwald led the computerized tour, highlighting the layout, artifacts, architectural remnants, and exhibitions that will be open to the public by 2012.

Click here to preview the 9/11 Museum online.

Click here to read more and preview 9/11 Memorial exhibitions.

The Memorial Plaza is slated to open on September 11, 2011, when visitors will be able to enter using a timed-admission system. Already the plaza appears ready to make that date, with its twin reflecting pools fully clad in black granite, and the north pool recently water-tested.

Between the pools, more than 50 trees have been planted, with another 50 to come by year-end. And this summer, the seven-story twin tridents were installed at the western end of the future Memorial Pavilion. Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta designed it, and the asymmetrical white steel beams that enclose the tridents are now becoming visible. The “Survivors Stairway” also is now in place in the underground Museum, relocated from its original site 2008.

Greenwald explained that while the plaza will be open on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Museum’s opening will arrive on the 11th anniversary. The timed-admission system may be used to maintain a safe capacity underground, though that plan is not final.

Visitors will enter the Museum through the Pavilion, descending by escalator between the pools. The cavern below is defined by a winding walkway that leads guests to various exhibition spaces. Among them are rooms where oral histories from victims, emergency responders, families, area residents, and others will be available, as will videos from the day of the attacks and during the recovery.

Perhaps the most remarkable artifact is a 60-by-60-foot section of the west slurry wall, which is part of the “bathtub” that held back the Hudson River when the twin towers fell. Beside it in a 15,000-square-foot open area, stands the 36-foot-long column that was the final steel removed in the recovery, in May 2002. First responders’ original signatures and artwork left on the column have been carefully preserved, and a screen beside it will show close-up images.

There are several more large-scale artifacts to be displayed, including a large bent steel beam, two destroyed fire trucks, and a 20-foot section of the north tower’s antenna. Among the smaller artifacts are personal items found during the recovery like WTC employee badge, remnants from the buildings, personal photos, and “missing” posters used in the aftermath.

Museum architects from Davis Brody Bond, who designed the sub-grade complex, also have created a private repository within the space to house remains of 9/11 victims.

That team of architects, designers, and Greenwald’s program managers also found innovative ways to employ “dynamic media” throughout the Museum. Interactive touch screens, slide shows, audio recordings, and other digital components are intended to tell a more comprehensive story, inviting visitors to become active participants in history -- either by recording their own memories, following particular stories, or simply through observation of the unique space.

In addition to the echoes of the attacks, Greenwald said it was key to include a full context of the events of 9/11, stating, “It will serve as a celebration of life before 9/11.”

The Survivors' Staircase will be part of the museum which is scheduled to open in 2012

There also will be a section of the Museum that examines the terrorist roots behind the attacks on the WTC, including information about its perpetrators. The 1993 WTC attack will be incorporated, as will the 9/11 Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania crashes.

Meanwhile, above ground at the Pavilion, Greenwald noted that there will be an auditorium and some exhibit space, as well as a private family room overlooking the plaza.

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