June 20, 2006
The following is from the Coalition of 9/11 Families: A seven-day comment period begins today on Frank Sciame’s draft recommendations to revised plans for World Trade Center Memorial and Museum.

Earlier today, Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg announced the release of the Sciame Report, which outlines a plan to revise the World Trade Center Memorial and Memorial Museum to bring it line with the established $500 million budget. The analysis is the result of a month long process spearheaded by builder Frank Sciame.

The full Sciame Report and design renderings are available on Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s website. The LMDC is accepting pubic comments on the Draft Recommendations outlined in the Sciame Report, through June 27, 2006, via via this form. Alternately, you may mail comments to:

LMDC
Attn: Memorial Draft Recommendations and Analysis
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10006

Please also review the following points and, if you agree, please echo them in your comments to the LMDC:

We strongly support Mr. Sciame’s suggestions to raise the names of the victims to street level and to eliminate the memorial’s underground galleries. While we applaud these recommendations, a number of issues still need to be resolved including:

1. The names of the victims must not be listed in random order as currently proposed. This method fails to tell the story of 9-11 and belies the history of the day. Victims' names should be listed by affiliation as outlined in the proposal submitted by the family groups on behalf of the majority of families.

2. The tomb must house the remains of the victims as opposed to being mearly a "symbolic mortuary vessel," which is the current plan. 3. Infrastructure must be removed from the footprint remnants at bedrock so visitors will be able to tranverse the authentic remnants, which have been compared to the strafing marks in the concrete at Pearl Harbor.

4. The Family Room must be relocated to the Visitors Center overlooking the memorial.

5. The safety and security of the Memorial and Museum must be integral to the design.

6. Iconic artifacts such as the facade and the sphere must be returned to plaza level.

We look forward to the day when Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg resolve these issues so that we will be able to go out and help build this monument to 9-11 and its victims.