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Cost Cuts Shrink 9/11 Memorial Design

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― The new Sept. 11 memorial design, reshuffled and pared down to curb costs that were pushing $1 billion, will raise the display of victims' names to street level and shrink the museum, but retains the original waterfalls.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki signed off on the more modest proposal outlined Tuesday. Last month, they asked developer Frank Sciame to come up with ways to rein in memorial expenses to a more manageable $500 million.

As preliminary preparation work began this spring on the memorial's construction, contractors warned that the costs were spiraling, prompting officials to order the whittled-down design.

The mainstay of the "Reflecting Absence" design by architects Michael Arad and Peter Walker remains unchanged: two square pools with waterfalls that go about 30 feet below street level.

  WCBSTV.com 9/11 Special Report

In the report, Sciame said he had considered eliminating the waterfalls, but decided they were too important to the "contemplative nature" of the design -- particularly because they will drown out the sounds of the city and allow viewers to get lost in the power and emotion of the memorial.

But he did snip more than $285 million from the cost. The changes include shrinking the size of the museum, removing portions of the galleries around the two reflecting pools where the names originally were listed and consolidating all entrances into one through a visitor's center at street level.

He also suggested expenses would be better managed if the Port Authority, which owns the site, took charge of building the memorial.

Tuesday's announcement marked the beginning of a seven-day public comment period. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which oversees the rebuilding of the site, will consider the public comments and adopt a final design by the end of the month, officials said.

The construction timeline remains on schedule, with the memorial to open by the eighth anniversary of the attacks -- Sept. 11, 2009.

Pataki praised Sciame for conducting a "thoughtful and thorough process," and said the redesigned landmark "honors our heroes' lives, mourns their passing, provides solace to their loved ones and tells their story to the world."

Bloomberg said Sciame's work produced a landmark that "allows us to retain the essential design of the memorial and memorial museum, while identifying significant cost savings."

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)