MICHAEL ARAD

No rendering can really simulate the way the light bounces off the bronze panel. From some angles, it's almost a mirror, and from others it's a matte surface.

PERFORMING TRIBUTE 9/11 shows the heroism of people who have chosen to respond to devastation and hatred with quiet determination and a belief that they can and will make the world a better place.

It was really a magical moment, to see this idea that's in your head.

When I was in the Army, the unit I served in, you could never stop. It was a volunteer unit, and there was a fairly high rate of attrition. The people who stayed through are the people who were either great at it or the people who just didn't know how to stop. And I fell into that second category.

I believe that people are fundamentally are decent. And, yes, you will have people that sometimes will misbehave.

I pushed the process forward by saying, 'We should do this, this, and this right now. Please find the budget for me to find a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, so we can do the preliminary work.'

I love New York, but I'd felt like an outsider here.

I have no choice but to fight them every step of the way. I can't tell you how many other stupid ideas have been proposed over the last two years.

I had a dual role: designer and advocate.

For two years nobody talked about anything other than the name arrangement. There was no fund-raising and no progress being made on construction and design.

It was really a magical moment, to see this idea that's in your head.

When I started this project, I was a young architect. I was very apprehensive about any changes to the design. Whether I wanted to or not, I learned that you can accept some changes to its form without compromising its intent. But it's a leap of faith that I didn't want to make initially - to put it mildly.

You can just never desist. You have to always push back, whatever the pressures put on you.

I pushed the process forward by saying, 'We should do this, this, and this right now. Please find the budget for me to find a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, so we can do the preliminary work.'

You have to always push back, whatever the pressures put on you.

New York was a place I wanted to live and work all along. If I wasn't going to live in Israel, I had to live in New York.

I believe that people are fundamentally are decent. And, yes, you will have people that sometimes will misbehave.

No rendering can really simulate the way the light bounces off the bronze panel. From some angles, it's almost a mirror, and from others it's a matte surface.

When I was in the Army, the unit I served in, you could never stop. It was a volunteer unit, and there was a fairly high rate of attrition. The people who stayed through are the people who were either great at it or the people who just didn't know how to stop. And I fell into that second category.

For two years nobody talked about anything other than the name arrangement. There was no fund-raising and no progress being made on construction and design.

There are bound to be differences in any artistic collaboration with landscape elements, or theater, of lighting elements.

I love New York, but I'd felt like an outsider here.

I have no choice but to fight them every step of the way. I can't tell you how many other stupid ideas have been proposed over the last two years.

I really appreciate artists of the 20th century, and I can see a lot of their influence on my work, but to suggest that my design only fits within an 'ism' kind of bothers me.

I had a dual role: designer and advocate.

It sounds really over the top to say you're responsible for the city of New York, but I do feel responsibility to the city of New York, to this country, to people everywhere. So many people were affected by the events of September 11, and I feel this is one of the ways that that event will be understood and defined.

I think my desire to imagine a future for this site came out of trying to come to terms with the emotions that day aroused.

I'm a little more measured. That sense of urgency I thought accompanied things - it can take a little longer. You have to take the long view.

As architects we are often involved in the concrete-steel-and-glass aspect of it, but cities are social structures, and to be involved in imagining the future of cities and the type of relationships and the types of places that we're making is something that intrigues me very much.

I built a series of supporters that had my back. I never abused that trust. You can't cry wolf. You have to solve most problems yourself.

How do you design it so that people can form a space of their own, and feel quiet and contemplative?

I hope for the experience of people standing together, turning their backs to the city and facing this, and hearing the leaves rustle. Well, maybe it won't be as bucolic as at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but I know you will feel removed from the city.

If I wasn't going to live in Israel, I had to live in New York.

PERFORMING TRIBUTE 9/11 shows the heroism of people who have chosen to respond to devastation and hatred with quiet determination and a belief that they can and will make the world a better place.