Britain's 9/11 memorial for NYC

Art in America, May, 2004 by Stephanie Cash

An English garden will soon be taking shape in Lower Manhattan as part of a memorial honoring the 67 British victims of the Sept. 11 attack in New York City. Located at Hanover Square in the Financial District in Lower Manhattan, the British Memorial Garden will feature a major work by Bombay-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor. The artist has designed a monolithic slab of black granite, approximately 20 by 8 by 5 feet, with a carved and polished vertical recess. Light reflecting inside the chamber will seem to form a candlelike column, which the artist intends as an eternal flame.

The garden is the brainchild of Camilla G. Hellman, an officer at the St. George's Society, who is spearheading efforts to raise $3.5 million to build and endow it. A nonprofit trust has been established to facilitate the project's realization. Competitions were held to select the garden's designers and an artist. Kapoor was selected from a field of 12 British sculptors that included Anthony Caro, Tony Cragg, Antony Gormley and Richard Deacon. Landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman, who have designed gardens for the Prince of Wales, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elton John, were selected for their curving plan that is derived from a map of Great Britain. Yew trees sculpted into topiary shapes will be prominent, as will flowers grown from seeds from the gardens of Henry VIII and William III. Paving stones incised with the names of British counties will wind through the garden. On an iron fence, the 9/11 victims will be symbolized by flower-shaped elements representing their counties of residence. The garden is scheduled for completion in summer 2005.