{"id":306681,"date":"2026-07-27T16:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306681\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:19:22","slug":"new-jerseys-9-11-memorial-remains-a-concrete-eyesore-will-it-ever-be-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306681\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey\u2019s 9\/11 memorial remains a \u2018concrete eyesore.\u2019 Will it ever be finished?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than two months, the world will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 terror attack<\/a> on the World Trade Center, which killed nearly 3,000 people that sunny and dark Tuesday morning, including about 750 from New Jersey.<\/p>\n

But while memorials have long been completed at the Twin Towers site in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Garden State\u2019s Empty Sky<\/a> memorial at Liberty State Park in Jersey City remains incomplete, say victims\u2019 family members, supporters, and a designer of the New Jersey memorial. <\/p>\n

And with the cost of completing the memorial estimated at $15 million in a state with a budget of $60.7 billion<\/a> \u2014 and a wealth of potential corporate and individual donors \u2014 advocates for its completion say they\u2019re increasingly frustrated by Gov. Mikie Sherrill<\/a>\u2019s apparent reluctance to finish the job her predecessors didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a fellow veteran, I\u2019m shocked that it seems like Gov. Sherrill just doesn\u2019t care,\u201d said Mike Danatos, who was one of 12 original members of the Family and Survivors Memorial Committee<\/a> formed in 2004 that selected the design. \u201cMaybe she\u2019s just too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danatos, a retired teacher who served in the U.S. Air Force after the Vietnam War, was referring to Sherrill\u2019s service as a Navy helicopter pilot. <\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the governor did not respond to requests for comment this week. <\/p>\n

Danatos\u2019 bother-in-law, Brian Martineau, 39, of Edison, died in the World Trade Center\u2019s collapse after giving up his place on an elevator to a co-worker who ended up surviving. \u201cTypical Brian,\u201d Danatos said. <\/p>\n

Fifteen years after the mostly completed memorial was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2011, it remains without the stainless steel panels, or cladding, on the exterior of its twin concrete walls, where the intended messages, \u201cNever Forget\u201d and \u201cAlways In Our Hearts,\u201d have never been inscribed. <\/p>\n

Some 60 cherry trees initially planted around the memorial as a contemplative grove have mostly died off and not been replaced.<\/p>\n

The lighting scheme that\u2019s supposed to illuminate victims\u2019 names repeatedly malfunctioned and was eventually removed leaving the memorial and evening visitors in the dark. <\/p>\n

A pair of kiosks intended to let loved ones locate the names of victims randomly positioned on the interior sides of the walls do not work. <\/p>\n

\"EmptyThe polished stainless steel cladding on the ends and the interior of the memorial’s two concrete walls contrasts with the rough concrete finish of the walls’ exterior sides. The memorial’s co-designer said the lack of exterior cladding originally intended for the memorial made it into “a concrete eyesore.” Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media<\/p>\n

And the names of 19 additional victims of the attack identified since six names were added in 2021 still await their inscription, advocates for the memorial\u2019s completion say.<\/p>\n

After the survivors committee was appointed and planning began under Democratic Gov. Jim McGreevey<\/a>, the memorial was dedicated seven years later under Republican Gov. Chris Christie<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The memorial\u2019s latest update, advocates say, was in 2021, when six new names were added under Sherrill\u2019s predecessor, fellow Democrat Phil Murphy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The advocates say they received assurances that the Sherrill administration would address the problems. <\/p>\n

These include a May 14 unsigned email from the state Department of Environmental Protection noting the addition of the six names in 2021, and adding that the department was \u201calso advancing longer-term projects to address issues involving the memorial\u2019s trees and lighting, as well as modernize the kiosks used to help visitors locate names on the memorial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second was a June 5 meeting with Sherrill staffers, including her cabinet secretary, Jonah Scharf. But they said that meeting ended up focusing mainly on preparations for the 25th anniversary commemoration. <\/p>\n

And without any sign of progress on the memorial\u2019s missing elements, the advocates consider the state\u2019s assurances as empty as the sky above Ground Zero after the attack. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now less than eight weeks from commemorating the most devastating mass murder in American history,\u201d Dennis Hallion, a retired New Jersey State Police active in the cause, emphasized in a press release on Wednesday. But, he added, \u201cWe have received NO ANSWERS, NO TIMELINE, NO COMMITMENT.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hallion and others say they have been trying unsuccessfully for months to win a commitment to complete the memorial from Sherrill, who was sworn-in in January. <\/p>\n

Others allied with Hallion and Donatos include Chris Meek, a philanthropist, author and former Goldman Sachs executive who was working near Ground Zero on 9\/11, and has written about and advocated for its victims since then. <\/p>\n

Meek, founder and CEO of the nonprofit 9\/11 Legacy Foundation<\/a>, said he has tried unsuccessfully for months to schedule a meeting with Sherrill. <\/p>\n

A Republican whose Legacy board includes high level former federal officials from both parties, Meek said he was baffled that Sherrill would pass up an opportunity to be out front on a cause that was not only right and just, but relatively inexpensive to finance, as well as politically unifying and popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a grand-slam, layup for her,\u201d said Meek.<\/p>\n

\"9\/11The names of 749 New Jersey victims of the 9\/11 terror attack are etched in 4-inch letters. Advocates for the memorial’s completion say 19 names are missing.
\n Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media<\/p>\n

If Sherrill wanted to avoid or minimize public spending on the project, he said, she could launch a private fund drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you can find some New Jersey-based corporations to throw $15 million together,\u201d said Meek, whose latest book Keeping Our Nation\u2019s Promise<\/a>, due out Sept. 8, has a photograph of Empty Sky on the cover. <\/p>\n

Meek and others are also allied with architect Jessica Jamroz<\/a>, who co-designed the memorial and one for Westchester County, New York, with the late architect and planner Frederic Schwartz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamroz said a public-private partnership to finance and maintain the memorial had been envisioned since the project\u2019s inception. <\/p>\n

She called the unfinished status of the the memorial \u201cunconscionable and heartbreaking,\u201d and reiterated her past lament that the unclad exterior walls of the memorial made it \u201ca concrete eyesore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamroz said the first priority should be to inscribe the additional 19 victims\u2019 names. <\/p>\n

Referring to family members, she said, \u201cSome of these people don\u2019t know that their names are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of families that I have spoken to were not aware that this memorial existed,\u201d Jamroz added. <\/p>\n

Still, Jamroz said she was hopeful that the governor would come around. \u201cI trust with all of my heart that the Sherrill Administration is going to do the right thing,\u201d Jamroz said. \u201cBut she needs to be prompted.\u201d <\/p>\n

For those who\u2019ve never visited, the memorial is essentially a pair of parallel concrete walls set 12 feet apart and measuring 210 feet long by 30 feet high by 30 inches thick, a configuration that for some evokes the image of the World Trade Center towers laying on their side. <\/p>\n

The walls form a corridor with a flat, bluestone floor open from above and at each end, which cuts through a grassy mound 10 feet high at its center, near a waterfront walkway along Liberty State Park\u2019s shoreline at the mouth of the Hudson River into Upper New York Bay. <\/p>\n

The interior side of both walls is clad with stainless steel panels, onto which the names of 749 New Jerseyans are inscribed deep enough for etching, with letters four inches tall, in seven rows stretching the length of the memorial.<\/p>\n

The open eastern end looks across the water to Ground Zero, near Manhattan\u2019s southern tip, where for weeks after the attack people along New Jersey\u2019s Gold Coast and farther inland could see and smell the acrid smoke from the smoldering mountain of rubble and remains. <\/p>\n

Looking out and up from between the walls reveals the empty sky that gives the memorial its name.<\/p>\n

Jamroz couldn\u2019t recall whether Schwartz, who died in 2014, ever explicitly stated that he\u2019d named the memorial after the 9\/11 song \u201cEmpty Sky,\u201d by New Jersey\u2019s rocker laureate, Bruce Springsteen. But she was certain that\u2019s where it came from, especially in light of the Westchester memorial, which has the same name as The Rising, the album that includes the song. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just obvious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two New Jersey House Democrats, U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Robert Menendez, used the 24th anniversary to call for including those who died after the attack<\/a> from debris-related illnesses at Ground Zero. <\/p>\n

While the memorial\u2019s empty sky effect has been widely applauded since the memorial\u2019s dedication 15 years ago, Jamroz and others say the missing elements undercut not only the its appearance, but its functionality and its message.<\/p>\n

For example, she said, the missing lighting was meant \u201cto dignify the victims\u2019 names in the evening,\u201d while the purpose of the autumn-flowering cherry trees was to provide \u201ca comforting spirit of rebirth and renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout all of these aspects holistically integrated,\u201d Jamroz said, \u201cthe promised vision of the Empty Sky Memorial will never be fully realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EmptyThis rendering represents how the Emty Sky Memorial was designed, with stainless cladding on the exterior of its two parallel concete walls, with this large message on its south side, and one reading, “Always In Our Hearts” facing north. The memorial is at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, next to the historic Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal.Courtesy of Jessica Jamroz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In less than two months, the world will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9\/11 terror attack on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-306681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}