A new Sept. 11 memorial, a two-story glass cube, had opened in 2008 at Logan airport in Boston to mark the place where the two hijacked planes that brought down New York's twin towers took off. The $3.5 million memorial offers an oasis of calm in the midst of the airport's bustle.
The competition-winning scheme for Massport's 9/11 Memorial, at the center of nearly three acres of rolling green hills, honors the crews and passengers of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Despite the steel-framed memorial's somber evocations, Massport also wanted to create an intimate experience that uplifts and transports.  Moskow Linn Architects choreographed two curving paths through a narrow, sloping site dotted with Gingko trees and edged with fieldstone walls. Slowly, a glowing glass cube comes into view. Glass walls transition from transparent to opaque to focus views upwards. Polycarbonate shards hang from stainless steel cabling at the top of the memorial, to evoke a sense of a fractured sky. Two huge glass panels inside the memorial list the passenger and crew names of those lost. “The Place of Remembrance" is open 24/7, serving as both respite and beacon. Architect Keith Moskow says the long, winding path to the memorial represents the path towards healing.