Wetlands and Wind Chimes

I've posted several times on the proposed design of the "Crescent of Shame" memorial to Flight 93 that received a great deal of criticism since it appeared to honor the religion of the hijackers more than it honored the brave people that stopped the hijackers from completing their religious mission. Jonathan V. Last at Weekly Standard updates us on the status of the memorial near Shanksburg, PA:

Seen in this company, "Crescent of Embrace" may well have been the best choice. The commission announced on September 7, 2005, that they had chosen the design from Paul Murdoch Architects and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Stretching out over 1,300 acres, the memorial begins with a tall "Tower of Voices" (which houses 40 wind chimes) by the entrance. Visitors drive past it and down to the parking area near the Crescent (later reconfigured as the Bowl)--a giant circle defined by 40 groves of trees, each of which contains 40 red and sugar maples. Visitors walk through the bowl, toward the crash site, dubbed "Sacred Ground." Here is the proposal's description:

The gentle slope and bridging over multiple ecologic zones provides not only a singular journey but also multiple pathways to the Sacred Ground. . . . This design best addresses the interface between the public realm of the visitor and private realm of the Sacred Ground while keeping the focus on the content, not on words or imposed symbolism.

Part of the Bowl is designated "Wetlands": "The area will be its own kind of healing landscape, as it will be a habitat full of life. . . . Here visitors will be most aware of continuously connected living systems as the circular path literally bridges the hydrology of the Bowl."

The architects proclaimed that their plan was for a "living memorial" that "offers the visitor space for reflection, learning, social interaction, and healing." An 8,000-square-foot visitors' center (the temple of Lincoln Memorial is only 9,228 square feet) is also part of the scheme. The current temporary memorial is not. It will be demolished when the new memorial is erected, its former site marked only by the retention of a few benches where it once stood. The new memorial is projected to cost $44.7 million.

Mark Steyn makes an important point about this touchy-feely memorial:

A true Flight 93 memorial would honor courage, action and improvisation, but reflection, healing and wetlands are the best we can manage. Go to any Civil War memorial on any New England common, and marvel at how they managed to honor their dead without wetlands and wind chimes.

Who's in charge of this thing, and why are they letting a bunch of spineless weenies design it? This is not a chapel dedicated to liberal spiritual fulfillment, but a memorial to bravery and sacrifice. They'd be better off sticking a big rock at the crash site and allowing people to come and leave their own memorials.