Designer of 9/11 memorial to speak at Saybrook

Michael Arad, designer of the National September 11 Memorial, will be the guest at a master’s tea at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27, at Saybrook College (enter at 90 High St.)

His talk is titled “’Reflecting Absence’: Designing America’s 9/11 Memorial

Arad is an Israeli-American architect, who grew up in Israel, the United States, and Mexico. He has been living in the United States since finishing his military service in the Israeli Defense Force in 1991. He worked as an architect at Kohn Pedersen Fox in New York City for three years before joining the Design Department of the New York City Housing Authority. Arad now works for Handel Architects, which has offices in New York and San Francisco.

In 2004, Arad was selected from 5,201 competitors as the winning designer of the World Trade Center Memorial with his entry, “Reflecting Absence.” The design features a pair of pools set 30 feet deep in the “footprints” of the downed towers, with cascading waterfalls surrounded by the names of the dead, areas at bedrock level where the public can mourn and family members of the victims can grieve in private, a space for 9/11 relics, and a “living park” at ground level meant to symbolize life and rebirth.

Saybrook master’s teas are open to the entire Yale community and to the public, and are supported by the Atkins-Mott Fund in Saybrook College.