Day: July 13, 2011

I walk by the 9/11 site every day. My office building is right across the street, so close that the CEO of my company saw the plane fly into one of the towers from his office on the 50th floor. In the past 6 months, the amazing people who have worked at the site for close to 10 years have made incredible, visible progress after spending so much time excavating and securing the foundation of the area. The difficulties they have worked through are astounding.

Yesterday I had lunch at Nobu New York with the amazing Lynn Altman, founder of the innovation agency BrandNow. (If you aren’t familiar with Lynn’s work, hop over to her site and check it out. She’s one of the very best in the biz and I loved working with her!) Lynn had not been down to the 9/11 site in a while and was incredibly impressed with the recent progress, which spurred me to reconsider a thought I’ve had in the back of my mind for a number of years.

I am sure the Freedom Tower will be beautiful though I can’t help but wish that we had decided to build a living, breathing greenspace rather than another set of buildings. I’m imagining an impressive, lush, beautiful park. Gardens, fountains, and a true memorial of peace, respite, and life for all of the courageous and precious souls we lost there that day and the many more who in the aftermath risked it all as first responders.

Shouldn’t a memorial to life and resilience be paved with life itself rather than concrete?