Lend Lease Honors Completion of National September 11 Memorial Museum

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Lend Lease recently recognized the completion of the National September 11 Memorial Museum. Lend Lease served as the construction manager for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.   The 9/11 Memorial opened on Sept. 11, 2011 in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Designed by Davis Brody Bond, the museum will display monumental artifacts linked to the events of 9/11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of the 2001 and 1993 attacks and the aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national and international communities and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.

The museum, which is located at the bedrock of the World Trade Center site, is below the memorial plaza and the acre-size reflecting pools that sit within the original footprints of the twin towers. The museum and entry pavilion are located on the western edge of the memorial site. Below grade, the museum is bound by the Memorial plaza overhead, the Memorial pools, shared support spaces, the central chiller plant, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson tracks and terminal and the slurry wall.

Visitors will enter the museum through the entry pavilion, which houses an auditorium, and a private room for victims’ families. The lowest level at the bedrock features the original west slurry wall, which is supported by a counter fort system and the remaining west slurry wall with a concrete reinforced liner. The original tower footprints are defined by the preserved original box column remnants, which are visible and accessible to visitors that ring the core exhibition spaces.

To reduce the impact on the local environment, while staying in compliance with the WTC Sustainable Design Guidelines and Lower Manhattan Environmental Performance Commitments, Lend Lease implemented a robust and sustainable program focused on reducing water usage, carbon emissions and optimizing the quality of the indoor environment during construction.

Lend Lease and three other contractors were assigned by the city of New York to conduct recovery efforts. As the recovery effort moved into the next phase, Lend Lease was designated the lead contractor overseeing the entire cleanup operation. For 265 days Lend Lease staff led, coordinated and worked with the New York Police and New York City Fire Department’s personnel and thousands of volunteers to complete the recovery operation. Over 1.6 million tons of debris were removed from the site during the recovery phase.

“Building the Memorial and museum, which is at the heart of the World Trade Center reconstruction, has been an honor and a privilege,” said Lou Mendes, senior vice president of facilities, design and construction for the 9/11 Memorial. “Lend Lease has been an extraordinary partner and we all acknowledge the historic contributions being made for realizing such a nationally significant institution.”