Flight 93 Memorial

The Flight 93 National Memorial comprises a 2,200-acre national park commemorating the heroic actions of the 40 passengers and crew who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. The Memorial transforms the site – a former reclaimed strip mine – to a place of environmental and symbolic healing. In 2002, Congress passed the Flight 93 National Memorial Act and launched a two-stage, international design competition in 2005. A Jury of planners, landscape architects, architects, designers, government representatives, family members and community representatives chose Paul Murdoch Architect’s proposal, which treated the 2,200-acre former coalmine site as a memorialized national park. Visitors move through a composition of open spaces defined by site walls, planting, walkways and courts, gateways and building elements. The visitor center uses photographs, artifacts, tactile models, audio, and video pieces. The Tower of Voices, a monumental, 93-foot-tall musical instrument holding 40 wind chimes, serves as a visual and audible reminder of the heroism of the passengers and crew. Sacred Ground, at the edge of the Field of Honor and embraced by an allee of red maples, is backed by 40 Memorial Groves. The project earned LEED Gold in 2015, with features that generated 49.31% energy cost savings; 53% reduction in the potable water usage; 35.64% of the total building materials value incorporates local materials and products; 21.22% of the total building materials content, by value, was manufactured using recycled materials.

2015

Stony Creek Township

Shanksville

LEED Gold

2020 Building Information Modeling Award (Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute), Presidential Award of Excellence 2021 (American Society of Landscape Architects)

12,536

U.S. National Park Service

PennStress, Paul Murdoch Architects, Nelson Byrd Woltz, Arup USA, Precast Services, Leonard S. Fiore, Johnson Mirmiran & Thompson