Landscape Design to promote thoughtful reflection.

An overhead view of the model for the Memorial shows how the benches will appear when they are lit up from underneath at night. Courtesy Pentagon Memorial Fund (additional note: lighting is designed to be visible from the air as flights approach D.C.)

"Groundbreaking Set for Sept. 11 Pentagon Memorial" NPR - Morning Edition, June 15, 2006 by Nancy Marshall Genzer· Ground will be broken at the Pentagon on Thursday for a memorial to the 184 victims who died there on Sept. 11, 2001.

The ceremony is a milestone in a project that began months after the terrorist attacks, when the victims' families held a design competition for the memorial. The winning entry calls for 184 steel benches -- one for each victim -- arranged along the path American Airlines Flight 77 took before smashing into the Pentagon.

The path will run between rows of memorial benches shaded by paper bark maples. The benches will hang above pools of water and look as if they're floating. Each bench will bear a victim's name. They'll be lined up according to the victims' ages, which ranged from 3 to 71.

The memorial is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2008.

A rendering shows what the Pentagon Memorial would look like in the daytime. Stainless steel benches, shaded by paper bark maple trees, will line a gravel path along the route taken by American Airlines flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001. Courtesy Pentagon Memorial Fund

For more detailed information on the design process of the landscape architects involved go to the official memorial website and scroll down to a set of links entitled design stories.