PENTAGON MEMORIAL DESIGN SELECTION ANNOUNCED
March 03, 2003

The Department of Defense today announced the selection of the Pentagon memorial design by the design selection jury. The winning design is the so-called “Light Benches” submitted by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman of New York.

Design Jury Chairman Terry Riley, chief curator of design and architecture at the New York Museum of Modern Art, made the announcement at a press briefing today in the Pentagon.

The memorial will be built on a 1.93-acre plot on the Pentagon reservation near the spot where the attack occurred on the building. Washington Headquarters Services and the Pentagon renovation team will supervise construction of the memorial.

Estimated cost to build the memorial is between $4.9 million and $7.4 million. Taxpayer funds will not be used for the construction of this project.

The memorial encompasses the entire memorial site and includes 184 benches with the name of each victim engraved into the face of the bench. The benches are to be comprised of cast, clear, anodized aluminum polyester composite matrix set on an eight-inch concrete pad for stabilization. Each bench will be positioned according to the age of the victim, progressing from the youngest, age 3, to the oldest, age 71. Each memorial bench will have a glowing light pool set underneath. The site also will have clusters of trees throughout to provide shading and a more intimate atmosphere.

In addition to Terry Riley, the Pentagon Memorial jurors were Harold Brown, former secretary of defense and now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Wendy Chamberlain, member of the Pentagon Victims Family Steering Committee; Walter Hood, chairman, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of California, Berkley; Melvin Laird, former secretary of defense and senior counselor, National and International Affairs, the Reader’s Digest Association.

Other jurors included Shelia Levrant deBretteville, public artist; Mary Miss, artist; Gregg Pasquarelli, architect; Carolyn Shelton, wife of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Hugh Shelton; Karen Van Lengren, dean, School of Architecture, University of Virginia; Roger Martin, landscape architect; and Jim Laychak, member of the Pentagon Victims Family Steering Committee.