WASHINGTON, D.C.- The competition for the Memorial to victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon ends in February. The competition is sponsored by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) and administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps). Professional Advisors (the Advisors) for this competition are Mark Robbins and Reed Kroloff. This two-stage competition seeks to identify a preliminary artistic concept for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

 

Competitors are challenged to create a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. Like all memorials, this one must speak generally — as the U.S. government’s official response, it represents all Americans — and specifically — it must also embody the deeply personal tragedy that the events of that day visited on the families of the victims. Whether it is large or small, kinetic or static, both the sponsors and the families of the victims want the memorial to address not only the loss of those murdered at the Pentagon, but the dedication to the principals of liberty and freedom that this terrible event re-awakened in people around the world.

 

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense and the national defense establishment. It houses the Offices of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretaries of the three military departments. The Pentagon building, at 6.5 million gross square feet, is three times the size of the Empire State Building; the U.S. Capitol could fit into any one of the Pentagon’s five wedge-shaped sections. Approximately 23,000 employees, both military and civilian, work there. While in the building, they tell time by 4,200 clocks and drink from 691 water fountains. They make more than 200,000 telephone calls daily through phones connected by 100,000 miles of cable. The Defense Post Office handles about 1.2 million pieces of mail each month. Various libraries support personnel in their work; the Army Library alone provides 300,000 volumes and 1,700 periodicals. Despite 17.5 miles of corridors it takes only seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.

The Pentagon is something of a construction marvel, commissioned by President Roosevelt on August 25, 1941 and completed barely 16 months later on January 15, 1943 at an approximate cost of $83 million. Preliminary design and drafting under lead architects George Edwin Bergstrom and David J. Witmer took just 34 days. The Pentagon consolidated personnel that had been spread among 17 buildings.

 

The Pentagon comprises five concentric five-story pentagonal rings connected by ten radial corridors. Interior courts that serve as light wells separate the five rings. Each of the building’s outer walls is 921.6 feet long and 77 feet, 3.5 inches tall. 

 

The Pentagon itself covers 29 acres; the building and its central courtyard cover 34 acres. The public facade is limestone, but all other exterior walls are exposed concrete. Clockwise from its northern point, the Pentagon’s five facades are: the Mall Terrace Entrance facade, the River Terrace Entrance facade, the Concourse Entrance (or Metro Station) facade, the South Parking Entrance facade, and the Heliport facade. (The Heliport — or west — facade is the one that was struck on September 11, 2001.) Although the ornamentation style of the Pentagon is classical in origin, it has been greatly simplified.

 

The Pentagon lies in southeastern Arlington County, Virginia, situated between the Potomac River to the east and the southeastern corner of Arlington National Cemetery to the west. The Pentagon’s relatively low profile permits clear vistas of Washington from the Cemetery’s highlands.

 

On September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 took off from Washington Dulles International Airport with 64 people aboard bound for Los Angeles. In flight, five terrorists hijacked the plane and crashed it into the west face of the Pentagon. The crash resulted in the murder of the 59 passengers and crewmembers aboard the aircraft, and 125 military service members and civilians within the Pentagon. Many others suffered injuries. A section of the Pentagon eventually collapsed.

 

The Pentagon has been under renovation since the early 1990s, well before the tragedy of September 11. The section of the Pentagon most severely damaged that day covers the outer three rings (E, D, and C) between Corridors 4 and 5 of the western "wedge" of the building. 

Approximately 400,000 square feet of space required complete structural demolition and reconstruction. Half of this area rests in an already renovated section of the building and the other half falls in an un-renovated section. Full-scale demolition of the damage began on October 18, 2001. Pentagon tenants will reoccupy the E-ring offices at the point of impact on September 11, 2002. All of the areas affected by the terrorist attack will be restored by Spring 2003. 

 

The Competition Jury met from September 30 to October 2, 2002, reviewing 1,126 Stage One entries in the Pentagon Memorial Competition. The jury selected six finalists to proceed to Stage Two of the competition.