The 9/11 Memorial and Museum and Sharp Electronics Corporation today announced the beginning of a technology partnership.  Sharp, in addition to providing future audio/video techonology support, has generously donated a new video installation at the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. The 13' x 7' video wall, comprised of nine Sharp LCD monitors, features animated renderings of the Memorial and an official "opening day counter."  Stop by the Preview Site to see for yourself!

By Norm Dannen, Public Affairs Associate

The 9/11 Memorial is opening on Sept. 11, 2011.

Help the 9/11 Memorial and Museum by sharing the unique gift of being part of history.  This holiday, sponsor a cobblestone on the plaza of the 9/11 Memorial on behalf of family, friends and colleagues and help pave the way to the memorial opening on the 10th anniversary. 

Cobblestones will line the paths of the 9/11 Memorial Plaza at the World Trade Center site – eight beautiful landscaped acres that will include two massive reflecting pools and more than 400 oak trees. 

Cobblestones can be sponsored for $100 (plaza cobblestones) or $500 (glade cobblestones, which are located in a beautiful clearing that will be used for special ceremonies and gatherings).

Out of respect for the victims of the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 attacks, cobblestones will not be inscribed with donor names. Electronic kiosks will be located on the plaza so donors can locate sponsored cobblestone.

Place your order by December 21st to receive your special holiday gift card.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Jigsaw: Piece by piece, workers are installing precut granite panels inside the south pool of the 9/11 Memorial. The memorial has two pool, roughly an acre each, that feature 30-foot waterfalls and are set within the original footprints of the World Trade Center's two towers. Each granite panel weighs about 420 pounds and each pool will have nearly 4,000 of these granite panels once the work is complete. Often times, heavy equipment like these two "cherry pickers" pictured here are needed for this ongoing work.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

Watch the full episode. See more Thirteen Forum.

9/11 Memorial architect Michael Arad detailed what inspired him to design a national tribute to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the World Trade Center terror attacks in 2001 and 1993 as part of the “9/11, Today and Tomorrow” speakers series. Arad shared early designs of the memorial in a the speakers series event on Nov. 10.  

The above video and others are courtesy of  WNET.ORG’s Thirteen Forum.  

Arad, a partner of Handel Architects, was working as an architect for the New York City Housing Authority when he entered and won the 9/11 Memorial design competition.

His design for the memorial, which is called “Reflecting Absence,”was picked by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in early 2004. Two years after winning the design contest, Arad was one of six recipients of the American Institute of Architect’s Young Architects Award.

 RSVP  for the next event in the series on Dec. 8, which will explore 9/11 and the spirit of volunteerism.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

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Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Green in spring, golden brown for fall: Photographer Amy Dreher snaps a picture of a few of the trees that have been planted at the World Trade Center site since late August. All told, the plaza of the 9/11 Memorial will feature more than 400 of these trees, creating a vibrant green space and a pictuersque vision of fall.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial 

The video shows the waterfalls taking shape at the 9/11 Memorial construction site. Your votes through Members Project will help the 9/11 Memorial earn $200,000 in essential funding.

We’re asking you to help make one final push to catapult your favorite charity – the 9/11 Memorial – into first place before polls close on Nov. 21.  We need as many votes as possible to reach our goal.

Voting for the Memorial will help ensure the promise to always remember 9/11.

We’re so grateful to all of you who have voted for us every week. Thank you for recruiting family and friends to support us and spread word about this voting effort on Facebook and Twitter.

Every vote matters. Make your voice heard. Help realize this national tribute at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

Here’s three easy steps to help us secure the win this week:

• Vote for the 9/11 Memorial by logging in at TakePart.com or on Facebook.

• Take it one step further, by sharing your vote on Facebook and Twitter.

• Go above and beyond, by asking your friends and family through email or by word-of-mouth to vote for the 9/11 Memorial

After you, your family and friends vote, read more about the waterfall tests in the New York Times.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

The above video is from Fox News' The Rise of Freedom series featuring hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, where World Trade Center remnant steel, crushed emergency vehicles and other artifacts recovered from ground zero have been housed since 2001.

Read more about hangar 17 at FoxNews.com.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude. Through “The Lens: Viewing the 9/11 Memorial,” readers of The MEMO blog can share some of the unique vantage points captured by Amy.

Stony resolve: Rich Pues (L) and Anthony Rodriguez of Berardi Stone place cobblestones to create the plaza for the 9/11 Memorial. The plaza will feature more than 400 oak trees.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com 

In case you missed it: The above video is from Fox News' "The Rise of Freedom" series about a son, Vincent Camaj, remembering his father, a World Trade Center window washer killed on Sept. 11.

Modest-upstart-turned-global-brand Lonely Planet, which is largely controlled by BBC Worldwide, is a company committed to independent travel, trustworthy advice and editorial independence, according to the company's website.

Lonely Planet has released its visitors destination list for 2011 and placed New York City at the top of the ranking.  The reason? The opening of the 9/11 Memorial next year. 

Here's what the website said:

"Since 9/11, the site of the World Trade Center’s twin towers has stood out as a closed-off, out-of-view, painful gaping void. This year that changes, as the former WTC site finally reopens to the public with the National September 11 Memorial, a 6-acre, tree-filled plaza with 30ft-deep waterfalls at the footprint of the former towers, rimmed by the name of each victim and illuminated at night (its museum will follow in 2012). For the city, this will be more momentous than if the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants won simultaneous championships while the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. For all of New York, 11 September 2011 will be a defining moment."

See how other places fared on Lonely Planet's list.

By 9/11 Memorial Staff