Families of 9/11 Victims Can View Remains?

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Family members of Sept. 11 victims will be able to enter a private room in the World Trade Center memorial and look through a window at a chamber storing more than 9,000 pieces of unidentified human remains, development officials said.

In a "contemplation room" next door, the public will be able to pay respects to an empty, symbolic vessel. Development officials disclosed more information about the design this week as they sought construction bids for the memorial.

The climate-controlled, low-humidity storage chamber for the victims' remains is one of several rooms to be built where the trade center's north tower stood, said Anne Papageorge, who oversees memorial development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

The remains will not be visible from the window, Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner's office, said Wednesday.

Some family members who follow the trade center rebuilding process said they would have preferred that the victims' remains be entombed in the larger contemplation room.

"Why should the public pay tribute to an empty box?" asked Edie Lutnick, whose brother was killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Papageorge said that the symbolic vessel isn't large enough to hold the 9,100 unidentified remains and that it wasn't possible to keep it climate-controlled. She said the medical examiner's office also needs easier access to the storage chamber in case it has to retrieve remains.

So far, 1,594 of the 2,749 people who died at the trade center have been identified. The medical examiner's office has said more sophisticated DNA testing may allow additional identifications later. The remains are sealed in refrigerated plastic pouches at the chief medical examiner's office, Borakove said.

The viewing room will be available only to family members, who can access the area by private elevator.

There also are plans within the north tower's footprint for a separate office for the medical examiner, another room where family members can reflect privately and exhibition galleries for the memorial museum.

Some family members said the design cuts up the north tower footprint into too many pieces.

Anthony Gardner, an activist who has sued to completely preserve the twin towers' footprints, said the design destroys the symbolic significance of the land.

"We'll do everything in our power to stop the destruction of the remains of the footprints," said Gardner, whose brother was killed.

Groundbreaking on the memorial is set for March; the memorial is scheduled to open in 2009.

Ok something just kinda icky about this in my opinion. ❌

I agree. I personally wouldn't want to, but some people might I guess.

Also I don't like the word "remains". It sounds so gruesome.

-AC

Im wondering it this means like ashes, or bone fragments or what here. Just too damn creepy for me.

I'm guessing from how it's talking about climate control and stuff, that it's actual body parts 😖

Very morbid, I think.

That's disrespectful imo 😬

everyone needs closure

How utterly bizarre. 9/11 was a terrible event, and it's terrible so many remain unidentified, but aren't the people planning this going a bit odd? A bit abstract? A bit morbid? I can't imagine the victims families finding it a nice tribute.

I mean, at first I thought my goodness, are they meant to take their kids and say "have a good look, one of these unidentified human remains might be your father/mother"? Then I read how they would be stored there, but not visible in the "contemplation" room, where people will get to look at an empty box. I mean, what? I'd expect something symbolic, more of, well, a memorial, at least, for so many people who don't have a grave to visit, to honor, who still might not have that final bit of closure.

I understand the need for the authorities to have access to the "remains", but merging memorial with the scientific, legal side of it all seems a bit unpleasant. And do the victims actually have to be kept on site? They died there, do they have to spend forever there in climate controlled rooms? Entombed in the memorial? How is it comforting to know that the mortal remains of a loved one might be mere feet away, but not laid down in any real way for eternal rest?

No, that's just ****ed up!

That's all there is to say about it, and I won't accept any other answers!

It's demented.

Originally posted by Capt_Fantastic
No, that's just ****ed up!

That's all there is to say about it, and I won't accept any other answers!

It's demented.

True, true.

It's funny though, the outrage and roaring that went on with the proposed freedom museum, that was meant to honor the fallen, as well as putting 9/11 in a global, historical context - plus inspiring debate and contemplation. As a result it's not going ahead the way planned.

If people are unhappy about this, why didn't they make it known?

Development officials disclosed more information about the design this week as they sought construction bids for the memorial.

Disclosed? It sounds so secretive. I would have thought that this project would be going hand in hand with the public, not left solely to the planners to make, and occasionally let snippets of their plans drift out to the public.

I don't understand... whos gonner wana look at aload of body parts in plastic bags in freezers???

Its not liike anyones gonner recognize there relatives hand and ID them on the spot!
I really do wonder... What is the point?! They could just put 1 persons remain in the jar, (like the unknown soldier) then it would actually hold some value...

Oh surely its not like the odd hand here or there. 😑 Can't be.

and do you know who runs the whole show....................ex-govt security people that lost their jobs to their inability to provide National Security...............only in America capitalism...🙂

(this is only a spoof)

how could anyone recieve closure by visiting a mountain of charred body parts?
this makes no frikin sense.

It seems to me like some kind of artistic/socio-symbolic gesture, but it seems more relevant (if at all) to people not directly or indirectly involved in the incident.

we certainly do love our history here in the USA anytime your in Washington DC check out the Holocaust museum.............although I don't think they kept remains of those fallen sealed away......

Ah! Something like the undergrounds of Paris with all the walls made out of skulls and that kind of crap!

Just a shame that it's only for the family members of victims.. 😖hifty:

Well, is this monument going to be in teh same location as the world trade center? Because if it is, then that's double dumb ass! Because that's prime real estate in Manhattan, and the land there needs to be used for commercial purposes...just as it was originally. I'm not saying don't put up a monumnet, but a huge facility and underground complex is a waste of precious space, in my opnion.

well you gotta give em this much, the mantra after the bombings was 'never forget' right? well alot of people have gotten upset the past few years saying that it seemed we HAD forgotten.. well if nothing else this DOES get folks talking about it again... for better or worse..

Personally I dont find it morbid.. I dont see how its any different from other mass grave sites from other tragic events.. there is one in Arlington Natl Cemetary from the Civil War that is nothing more than a huge pit filled with arms, legs & other body parts that they couldnt account for.. so after the war they pput them all in one place and buried them together.. why is this such a bad thing??

but can you actually SEE these things?

nope.. not the one in Arlington anyway.. like I said its now nothing more than a mound of dirt & grass.. if you didnt know what you were looking at you'd think it was just a little hill or something..

i'm betting that the remains (and yes I'd bet money that it is infact comprised of severed limbs & other body parts... grisly i know but thats just the fact of what happened.. IMO to ignore it would be a way worse scenario than this is... but thats just me.. it really ought to be up to the victims families as to what is done i think..