The Memory Garden: Remembering 9/11 in Gardens

Across the country and beyond, people have memorialized one of the our nation's most traumatic events by creating gardens with meaning and memory.

I usually publish The Memory Garden posts on Mondays, but I held off until today in order to diverge a bit from the story of the creation of my mother’s memory garden and instead write a special post related to the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

An entire generation now exists that was either not yet born or was too young to understand the events of that day, but for most of us, the trauma of that time is still very real and heartfelt. On that day and for all the days that have followed, the tragedy of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as well as the failed attempt by hijackers to use Flight 93 for a third attack have seemed almost too big to comprehend. How do you memorialize something so massive? Here are three examples of how designers used symbolism and incorporated significant artifacts to create memorial gardens that are contemplative, respectful, and meaningful.

The 9/11 Memorial Glade
180 Greenwich Street, New York, NY

The Glade, adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, is dedicated to the responders whose efforts to render assistance following the attacks left many of them chronically ill or dying from the toxins in the air surrounding the collapsed World Trade Center buildings. The architects of the 9/11 Memorial, Michael Arad and Peter Walker, designed the Glade with a pathway flanked by six large stone monoliths, ranging from 13 to 18 tons, that are inlaid with World Trade Center steel accompanied by an inscription at either end of the pathway. Trees, grass, and ivy beds surround the pathway and stone monoliths. A portion of the dedication inscribed at the Glade reads:

Here we honor the tens of thousands
From across America and around the world
Who came to help and to heal
Whose selflessness and resolve
Perseverance and courage
Renewed the spirit of a grieving city
Gave hope to the nation
And inspired the world.

Beverly Hills 9/11 Memorial Garden
445 North Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA

This memorial garden “pays tribute to those whose lives were lost on 9/11 and serves as a constant reminder of the heroism exhibited by fire and law enforcement personnel and first responders that day and on any ongoing basis.” The garden features a structural steel artifact from the World Trade Center on a Pentagon-shaped base, along with a set of symbolic twin towers overlooking a field of greenery that represents the field in Pennsylvania where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed. I thought it was particularly moving that they encased in the base of the memorial copies of the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, Gettysburg Address, and a piece of the aircraft from Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, along with the Captain’s insignia wings.

September 11th Memorial Garden
W1, Grosvenor Square, London, England

This garden is dedicated to the 67 citizens of the United Kingdom who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. I like how the garden designers leaned heavily on plant symbolism to make the garden meaningful, as described in this Grosvenor Square listing:

“The oval garden was designed by Land Use Consultants; it includes a timber pavilion and pergola designed by Carden and Godfrey Architects, and at the centre is a stone plaque designed by Richard Kindersley under which was placed a small piece of rubble taken from the Ground Zero site in New York. The planting, informed by suggestions from families of those who had lost their lives, consists of North American and British species that specifically flower and are at their best in September to coincide with the anniversary of the attacks."

The plant choices include:

“Rosemary - plant of friendship and remembrance,
Ivy - an emblem of fidelity,
Lily - embodying purity and the life of the soul,
Phlox - a traditional love token,
Coneflower - prized for its healing properties,
White Rose Sally Holmes - flowering in September, this white rose is central to the symbolism of the Memorial Garden.”

From the plant palette to the hardscape to the words carved on the wooden frieze above the pergola (“Grief is the price of love”), this garden was clearly planned to be meaningful in multiple ways.

All three of these gardens, as well as other 9/11 memorials, show how tragedy and trauma—even when it occurs on a massive scale—can be represented and honored in a memorial garden.

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