New York Voices; 419; Tribute in Light

Do your. One. VOICE. Million are. Places. New York Voices is made possible by the members of 13 additional funding provided by Michael t Martin Dillon Raphael here in Monterey Welcome to New York Voices. You know next week on the second anniversary of 9/11 the tribute in light will shine once again over New York City for one evening. Tonight we have a documentary from independent producers to risk a foreign Jason Heydrich that tells a story of how this unique and moving memorial came about in the months following the September 11th attacks. I hope there will never be another opportunity to do something like this again because it was born out of tragedy and it symbolizes tragedy. Probably if you look at the street tragedy has an uncanny ability to stimulate people to do important things. On March. 11th of last year. Six months after the attacks on the World Trade Center. New York

City unveiled a tribute in what was a time for a memorial. For thirty two consecutive nights from dusk until 11:00 p.m.. Two great beams of light poles high above the city skyline from the site just north of Ground Zero. This was a project envisioned simultaneously by three different design groups. Realized with the help of two nonprofit arts organizations and hundreds of committed citizens. It was a unique collaboration motivated by a collective hope that light. Just light. Could inspire a fragile public and help begin to heal the sick the the. It was the most unlikely of collaboration she would never have been able to guess this group together in a million years because everybody seemed to have conceived of it independently and simultaneously everybody brought to it their own directives and

inspirations. We didn't choose one another. We were chosen by fate. When I look back at. The sequence of events that. Led to our involvement. It was less during the fast I mean it was four hours after the towers had come down maybe five hours afterwards was that day and I got a call from a friend of mine named Jennifer alike and Janet has been the art director of The New York Times magazine and we've collaborated on other projects previously. And she said I know it's really premature. And I was hoping to get some sort of you know artist response as to what's happening today. And I said you know nobody is going to respond. But then as we're talking about it I thought I do have an idea. And that's how we got involved tribute. They had a studio until recently in the Trade Center and maybe through their art they can help come to terms with it and then also communicate something appealing to the public.

I think as artists we try to wrestle with images we try to find images we try to make them in this instance the image was revealed to us. It was as if we became midwives to an image that many people would have. We had been discussing this phantom limb sensation and had been sort of envisioning or picturing it. So pretty much that evening we understood what we're going to do. And then the next day I got the photograph and did the computer manipulation. And behold it was going to appear on the cover of the next New York Times Magazine. Once we had made the image we saw how much it affected us. And then quickly. Sort of hey what would it take to transition a virtual image into an actual image. Normally our projects we voice on the public. But this was something of such a scale and seriousness that I absolutely fell. We really needed to have very serious information that the public actually

wanted it to happen. So we took that image that they made and we put it on our website and we asked people Do you like it or do you not like it but don't tell us yes or no. Tell us why. Within the next six weeks we had over 10000 lawyers our tiny staff less than six people at that time read all the letters sorted them analyzed them. We had to be very wary and very delicate about you know. Where the line were drawn lines were drawn between our own desires and then what might be best for them for the people. And if if I came to speak of the people I don't even know what people are. Why do people come to New York it's everybody's got a different stupid reason or good. So I just happened to be here in a particular place at a particular time and I happen to watch the buildings fall down and I thought I had. I said well we had to put the lights back here and I knew who to call out.

The Municipal Art society's a venerable old institution. Been around for more than a hundred years it's done. I think well respected and known projects like. Saving Grand Central Station and advocating for a new Penn Station. Richard came to our chairman. His name is Philip Howard. And basically said I cannot. Stand. The. Boy that I'm looking out on every day. We have to do something about this. Can we just put two spotlights straight up in the air. I mean these lights and Photoshop of all the pictures that I took this one had sort of the same. One appropriate to conveying the sort of the you know the meanest polite society bought into the idea from the outside and went about establishing a citizens committee. I think it was composed of David Rockefeller Philip Howard Gordon Davis Agnes Stein. And they penned a letter to the then mayor Giuliani. Saying. Let's do this. Good Light idea really was the media. It was a big broad

gesture. OK let's spend. What do we say two days on this and see what happens. We had a model three dimensional computer model of Manhattan that we worked with on another project before. This is exactly the file on the 13th of September I think 11:00 a.m.. So this is really like the very beginning. You know we what we were. The minute I saw this image I knew we had something. It seemed so right it seemed to do so much so easily and to be. I mean we could see it. I mean we could see doing it actually in the very beginning we were not kind of a little hesitant about you know pushing too hard because we didn't know what the people's reaction would be. We sent out e-mails starting on the 13th to various people and sort of powerful positions in New York showed up at my computer screen and I took down to.

My side I just want something beautiful at a time of real tragedy. So it seemed a little bit weird to say once you send this to people but every time they send to someone people actually respond in the same way and nobody. Wanted them to not continue. It was after that TIME's cover came out that we had heard from Gustavo and John. Their association with creative time was terrific as we didn't have an organization that had any sort of experience in doing public works and stuff so creative time was a huge asset. As soon as we found out that other people had had the same reaction which I think was a very visceral one. We came together and I want to say that that was. In September. We never discussed how we would work together but we had our original name which was a project for the immediate reconstruction of the Manhattan skyline. Paul and Julian had phantom limbs.

Julian Paul Gustavo and John had come up with the name towers of light. The name which I was never all that thrilled with which obviously invoked the buildings even in the title. I can't tell you how many e-mails we got on this one but we were rejected immediately and there was much antagonism about this about terrorism in the end. I had a discussion with. A family member named Monica Iken and she said yes it should be a tribute and it should be a tribute in light it should be towers of light. I said Monica do you mind if I plagiarize this here idea. And luckily she didn't. And we went forward from there. We are architectural lighting designers we work generally under the direction of architects to to build buildings or restore buildings or do things like that. We were contacted by the Municipal Art Society we were known

as people who had done major lighting projects in New York Grand Central Terminal the Grand Central exterior district Carnegie Hall Times Square and it was thought that we might be useful and taking all of the ideas and. Coordinating them and bringing them to some kind of reality. Just sort of like that Richard Dreyfus syndrome. In that close encounter kind of a Sharon's vision of. Devil's Tower but not knowing how to explain it. We were creating the memory of two tall objects that that's the way I thought about. The concern always when you spring life into the air is what can anybody see because fundamentally you're lighting nothing. Why does anything until it strikes something. What we use were Xenon searchlights and the Municipal Art Society paid to send Paul out to the desert in Las Vegas to see the company that on these lights homemade pictures he brought him back.

If it works in Vegas it will work in New York because we have much more atmosphere in New York than you have in was paying us to do the least tired head on the nation's weather. I guess. This. Visit will. Raise. That. With. The great question was what kind of a re. I would give us the biggest bang for the buck. When I look at the pictures I said wow this is go where these are going to be really tight because it's really a geometry problem. You know that that theme has really focused you know it's only 20 inches in diameter. You know that the lights can only get so close and if you line up on a road in the space between them it's going to be gappy. So what do you do in his insulation he's sort of move them from each other so they bounce back and forth. It. Simply has a power supply that causes this arc to to ignite and to stay lighted hall where the lamp is held vertically. And there is a reflector. That. Looks like a giant teacup. In the form of a parabola. That collects old. Light from the ark. And.

Sends it all in one reading. So we're standing on now is what would resemble the North Tower. I'd say we're about 150 yards. North. West. Of where the North Tower once stood. And we have struck a tower that would be in the same relative play of what the South Tower would be first of all I want to thank you all for listening because I think this is really important and I have a vested interest in what's going on downtown. I came here because I do not want the towers of light. I do not want to see them. I'm not getting work. And I you know just to be respectful of our needs I really need to see something there because I really miss the two buildings and many people use it as a beacon. We were trying to figure out how we could do this technically. Logistically and at the same time. We're trying to make public presentations and find out whether this is something that people can actually live with.

At the same time we're trying to raise money. The supporters of the Audubon Society said this could be really dangerous for birds migrating and so we called the director of The New York City chapter. He said Well. The person you need to speak to is the chair of our bird collision Committee. You deal with everything from. The Federal Aviation Administration. We had to contact the FAA very early on to the Audubon Society It's like everything with wings from birds to planes it was the same with people when you're going to a community board meeting with a community that has been locked out of their homes for two months. Who has traumatized children who saw buildings collapse. And you're talking about a. Piece of. Public artwork. That occurred as it turned out to three different groups of artists that it would be a nice idea to create a temporary world of to two chefs of life that would simply rise up

somewhere close to Ground Zero and to sort of invite you to go slow. It's good it's going to really make a lot of people feel very sad. How much does it attract or interfere with traffic. Well he was right so it would be a target. They might be timing based on the fact that we're illuminating the sky for them. To stand upright and chanting how. Much it's going to blow. I mean I guess it doesn't really flower like a hit. Yes right. I have a feeling that I don't want any kind of memorial that isn't a living memorial. I see no. No good coming out of metal or bright light. I'm sort of for it because I believe that it really has a life time that was very specific. There would be enormous reaction to it. One way or the other. Designing is not a democracy you know.

What happened was we agreed to a press moratorium before they had said we were looking at the press as sort of a means to gather support. A lot of the pictures they got out there were very early conceptual drawings that were not indicative of what we were actually putting forth some of them are sort of more quiet and peaceful. Others are more bombastic and sort of terrifying. We didn't want to scare people obviously. So we wanted to make it a bit softer. But at the same time balance it being visible. And unfortunately this is the one that got legless in the press. So we would come to meetings. With. Neighborhood race. It ends with a dance and they'd say I know what this looks like I hate it and I would say Wait you're reacting to something else. The other drawings were so misrepresentative they were mind bogglingly unrealistic. Every day I worried about the collaboration. I mean it was not a friendly family

but perhaps that doesn't have to be the case. You don't have to like do this out of some sort of you know love for one another you just have to do it for a desire to get it. B How to be brought to fruition. There was a lot of fear about this project and I think a lot of fear got assigned to other people by you know expressing it as your concern that so-and-so might not do something up properly. Everybody knows although they want to admit it that there were probably 10 people who had this idea almost within days. We didn't want to do it under our business a we didn't want to associate it like that it was just two people that were doing something. So. The idea that individuals would somehow take personal credit for this. Listen it was in modest while. The concept of this being an anonymous. Project. That appeared. Sunday is a beautiful idea. I don't think that it

can be practically realized. In New York City. In the environment. After September 11 it's where. People wanted was answers. The press actually wanted to know who the people were behind this project. I mean I felt because I was getting all these phone calls from moms and wanted the public to know. That this was a work by artists and I mean artists as the entire creative team especially in our country were artists are just constantly being ridiculed. Could you just tell. Me. About your time for you to. See. It. And then. You came up with. Was. The Way You Make Me Feel. Do this project actually you know. Really just say. Look we know. We are. Not with these lies but with other lies I've dived shock the shit out of myself about. Someone. But I thought my hair was going to turn line fall. This is all about the gig.

You know the way that you see is pretty close hold your bandwidth. So the lady is it is dark a light if there is such a thing that you can use to kind of mask it so you know give it away from a gentle again. I really hope we get a. Living going to buildings. We've been going down there down the road and sending people out. How do you juggle. Well actually. We're we're still sorting. Through one. Man and they're not. There they're going to be the visual right. Here. That looks pretty good for you really. It was. So hard. Being. So far away on all. Right looks like we manhandled a little bit of it. On. Me. King judging by the way I can really see. This moment.

Yeah me and. Explain. This to. Us. Look this. Is a this is. A. Lineup. That team. Really gets to me. It is still the.

Odd. One. If it didn't work everybody could blame Pomerantz I mean we would say oh it's not our fault OK. I went out about an hour before throwing the switch with my partner Charles Stone I walked down the street to the sink south of the World Financial Center and there were 60 or so satellite uplink trucks moving money around the city. Thank you so much for doing this. And it was at that moment for the first time really that it hit me that the entire world was there. I was very gratified that the ceremony itself was kept so simple. The thought that there would be three politicians on the stage and not a single speech I mean that's brilliant.

Her father then you know well was a Water Authority police officer who was lost on September 11 this week. Thank you thank you. Thank you. I think everybody agrees this is the best person to be watching in. The city and the minute.

That those lights went on this project. And before that had been discussed. In you know whispered towns among given plenty of people. Suddenly didn't belong to any of us who had worked so hard on it. It belonged to everybody. When I woke up the next morning you think I mean obviously it's going to be covered but when it's the top of the fall that every single newspaper in the world L.A. Times Washington Post. To the extent that. It simultaneously. Bernard savage under the eyes of millions of people and. So many people felt in the same way. And felt. United by it in that sense I think these. Memorials that have less of a. Responsibility actually teach you the facts. I also have this possibly more powerful expression. I mean this is like my hero. Ha. Shows

me about a problem with. The way signs of. The stunts a surprise moments like. This I guess Texans have. I mean I never would have said somebody but. But that's what they saw and that's what they saw. It doesn't tell them the story of the towers. They already knows the story the tires. The. Categorizes. The recollection a memory and a very focused. And. I think beautiful way. I can't feel anything but hasn't been heard. I was on the platform the other day looking up and I had the feeling of being really cold civilian and that was an interesting part. The way they're spaced me it felt like the bars of the jail on nights when I seen the first confusion there. That's what it looked like they really. Are traps. This is the strangest thing because sort of there's never been anything so tall like ever on the face of the earth. So we

didn't know what that was going to look like. But. In a great kind of coincidence I think it made it not taller and not larger but in a way more personal. Because wherever you were and you looked up. It looked like it was directly above you. I now see the sort of blankness of. That ability that it has to just be able to hold whatever people were bringing to it you know to be able to just absorb rather than art.. I feel that it was poetry it was.

I learned that the power of flight when used in the right way to help people seal the swellest sea. Is much greater than I could ever imagine. This was one of those very rare projects where light. Was the idea. New York Voices is made possible by the members of 13 additional funding

provided by Michael t Martin.