Memorial Courtyard to open with tribute to lost WTC alumni

Ground breaking for a special memorial garden, planned during Homecoming 2002, will be marked by a ceremony honoring the 15 alumni who lost their lives Sept. 11. The first phase of the garden will pay tribute to these alumni, all of whom were working in the World Trade Center. Eventually, it will also serve as a place for all alumni, staff, students and University friends to be memorialized by their loved ones..

Michael Radner '86 designed the Memorial Courtyard.

Known as the Memorial Courtyard, the project is a collaboration among alumni, students, faculty and administrators. It will be located in the Fine Arts Courtyard and include a complete renovation of that space with plants, flowers and trees, flowing water, new paving stones and a stone monument bearing granite plaques for each of the 15 victims.

Students and the University administration both wanted to do something to remember and honor those lost on Sept. 11, and the idea for the garden came into being shortly after the attacks.

"We've been communicating with the families to make them aware of what's happening," said Lloyd "Skip" Howe, BU's assistant vice president for student life and a member of the Memorial Courtyard planning committee. "The families seem to appreciate this effort."

It is hoped that private donations will pay for most of the project, but that state and University resources can help renovate and repair the courtyard space, Howe said. This year's graduating class raised $8,000 to purchase 15 tile plaques that will memorialize each of the alumni lost Sept. 11. The plaques will be mounted on a rustic, curved stone wall at the "headwaters" of a landscaped flowing stream, Howe said.

Michael Radner '86 of Framingham, Mass., was invited to design the project. "Initially, I thought I could act as an adviser to BU, and that this would be a unique way for me to give something back to the University community," said Radner, who earned his degree in biology at BU and a master's in landscape architecture from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

"One thing led to another, and the University asked if I would like to be the landscape architect for the project. I jumped at the chance to become involved in something unique. It's a project that has value on so many levels. I have never given a design more thought than I have to this one. You want to handle it with the proper respect and sensitivity."

Radner said his design was inspired by the hills and rivers of Binghamton's natural environment.

Two events tie these 15 people's lives together," he said. "One is that they died together tragically; the other is that they spent happy times here, in this place. We chose to focus on the positive aspects and reflect that in the design."

The Fine Arts Courtyard has a stillness and quiet that makes it attractive for a memorial space, Radner said. But it also posed two significant challenges: its badly deteriorated paving and masonry, and its enclosure on all sides by glass and brick walls.

"Removing over 40 percent of the paving (about 8,000 square feet) and replacing it with landscaping will improve the intimacy and add warmth," Radner said.

Families of the victims will be invited to plant flower bulbs during the ground-breaking ceremony this fall. Initially, though, the bulbs may be planted near the courtyard's main entrance, so as not to be disturbed by ongoing construction, Howe said. "We'd like to create kind of a gateway effect," he added.

"I hope we are creating a garden that will never really be finished Ñ that will always be a work in progress," said Radner. "In the garden, there will be a place for planting 3,000 tulip and daffodil bulbs in remembrance of all the victims of 9/11. We are hoping that the planting of the bulbs will become a fall ritual on campus, and a way for people to remember. It would be a somber event, but also a celebration of new life and the potential to heal. Imagine 3,000 flowers popping up in the spring, just before finals!"

-- Susann Thiel

For additional information about the Memorial Courtyard or to make a donation, contact Marcia Craner, executive director of the Binghamton University Foundation and associate vice president for alumni and development, at 607-777-5801 or mcraner@binghamton.edu, or go to http://courtyard.binghamton.edu.