Went to visit the 9/11 memorial today. I was in Oslo when they opened on the 10th anniversary last year, so I haven't had a chance to visit yet. It's a wonderful space, with two acre-sized pools in the footprints of the towers, and rows of nice trees with benches beneath. Water pours into the pools from street level and along the back marble edge of the pool are the names of those who died in that tower, organized by the businesses they worked for, the planes they sat on, or the fire company they served. Friends have been placed next to friends, and there's something much more powerful about that than simply listing the names alphabetically.

The memorial is a powerful space, even with the construction still going strong all around, the unopened prow of the Snøhetta designed memorial museum, and then new World Trade Center building rising high above. It's a funny paradox overall; here's a space designed for quiet reflection, that by default can never be quiet or removed from the bustle of the city. I think it'll be sublime next summer when the trees have leaves on them, and in summers to come when you don't have to go through airport-level security and the construction is all gone away.