Building a bad memorial.(Scan)

The wrangling over what kind of memorial to construct at the site of the World Trade Center is over. The jury has chosen architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker's "Reflecting Absence"--two pools of water in the footprints of the Twin Towers, surrounded by paving and trees.

That choice is a disappointment. Many have called the leading entries unimaginative or formulaic. But there is an even deeper problem: the unseemliness of placing an aching memorial to victims in a location where tens of thousands of people will have to confront it day after day. One can sympathize with those who lost family members or friends in the terrorist attack while rejecting the idea that New York must perpetually relieve the anguish of that terrible event.

Through most of human history, public monuments were erected to leaders and heroes who guided a nation through trials so dangerous as to deserve permanent commemoration. In the U.S., the two greatest examples are the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Americans value those memorials because they celebrate men who persevered through years of struggle to attain profound national goals.

What the winning designers envision in New York City is very different. Rather than occupying a site that stands apart from everyday activities, the memorialization of 2,982 deaths at the World Trade Center is to be plunked in the midst of downtown commerce and random comings and goings. From thousands of surrounding workplaces occupants will look down on ghostly voids.

If the memorial conveyed a message of valor and hope, there could be reason to award it such a large and visible site. But those who died in New York were--with heroic exceptions such as firefighters and other rescuers--victims caught unaware in the midst of office work. As much as our hearts go out to them and to their survivors, we cannot pretend they were knowingly engaged in a national mission, as soldiers are. It is abnormal, and disturbing, to set aside 4 1/2 acres in our nation's financial heart for a permanent reminder of victimization.

Turning the 200' x 200' footprints of the Towers into a pair of pools sunk 30 ...