World Trade Center Memorial Foundation

The Associated Press is reporting that the opening of the World Trade Center memorial (now officially known as the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum) has been pushed back two years until Sept. 11, 2011.

It was probably one of the few bad times during the Bloomberg administration to be a developer.  read more »

In the two months since Mayor Bloomberg became chairman, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has raised $57 million--though, before giving him too much credit, remember that a national advertising campaign got under way in July, which may have helped. - Matthew Schuerman

Joseph Daniels, the acting president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, is now the actual president. -Matthew Schuerman

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It's been a few years.

But on Thursday morning, The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the NY/NJ Port Authority will begin construction work on the Museum and Memorial's footings.

If you happen to have NYPD press credentials, head down at 10:15.  read more »

Click right for a rendering, or below for the full release.

After numerous setbacks and disappointing fund-raising efforts, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation kicked off a nationwide advertising campaign aimed, according to the mayor, at the "working people and well-to-do."

The ads play off of the spontaneous memorials which appeared in the days after Sept. 11th, -- monuments of American flags, candles, baseball caps and other personal items belonging to those killed in the attacks -- and argue that something more permanent is needed now.

"We needed one then. We need one now," is the slogan, with a final appeal that "It's time."

The announcement, which was also attended by George Pataki, represents an effort to regroup after many prime givers were initially turned off by all the turmoil and controversy surrounding the memorial.  read more »

The goal of the ad campaign is to raise another $170 million for the planned monument. So far, since 2005, the foundation has brought in $130 million.

- Jason Horowitz

Coming to a Bus Stop/Magazine/Newspaper/Website Near You

The national fundraising ad campaign for the World Trade Center Memorial launched today makes no bones about how long it has taken to get this thing off the ground (or in the ground, actually). The theme is "It's time," and, since two themes are better than one, there is another theme, this one for the first phase, "Bringing Objects," which the press release explains:

references the overwhelming need to memorialize which was felt immediately in the wake of the attacks and still persists five years later. The message, "We needed one then. We need one now," conveys the importance of remembering and also stresses the present mandate to build a permanent memorial.

Hey, if you had really wanted to give money before, you could have always visited the memorial foundation's website. But did you?  read more »

Since we know how much you like original documents, we'll give you the full release after the jump.

-Matthew Schuerman

Gov. Pataki, after meeting with the executive committee of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, tried to relieve pressure on fundraisers there at a Q&A with reporters at the John Zuccotti park opening this morning. The immediate goal: scale back the cost of the memorial and museum to less than half a billion, and get someone other than the foundation to pay for the prep work.

"The memorial foundation was created to raise money for the memorial and the memorial museum," he said. "Personally I think there should be government resources used [for the infrastructure]."

The Port Authority owns the site but it has never been clear who is responsible for the infrastructure, which may cost as much as $300 million. Pataki has already asked for a lot from the Port, and he controls only half the votes, so once again, the New Jersey contingent is going to be playing a starring role in the denoument here.

Here's a new statement from the Memorial Foundation (PDF), setting out July as the start of a national advertising campaign and fundraising drive.

-Matthew Schuerman UPDATE: An earlier headline said that Governor Pataki wanted the Port Authority to take over the infrastructure costs, but the Governor's office said he has not specified the source of the funds other than to say they should come from government. (Already, however, the Port has committed $100 million towards the memorial's infrastructure.) The earlier version of this post also carried a quote that was, upon a second listen to the tape, not clear and so it was deleted.

It's an old trick of the trade to release bad news late on a Friday.

How about awkward and embarrassing news like the resignation of someone who had been publicly upbraided by her patrons?

That would be Gretchen Dykstra, who announced her departure from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation just now, after 5 p.m., on the Friday before a long weekend which most people started around 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

This is another good reason why The New York Observer is committed to keeping its employees working until 6 p.m. or later every single Friday of the year. We never want to let anything slip by us!

Download her passive-aggressive resignation letter--"There is general agreement that the multiplicity of authorities makes it difficult for anyone to move expeditiously. Perhaps it would help if there were one less player."--here (PDF).  read more »

-Matthew Schuerman

Tom Topousis examines the awkwardness of Gretchen Dykstra's national non-fundraising tour for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. In Hartford, Ron Nobli, a labor union official, tells him, "We would have dug into our own pockets right now" -- except Dykstra wasn't asking.

The No. 1 saying in philanthropic circles is that the No. 1 reason why people give money is because they are asked.

-Matthew Schuerman

Gretchen Dykstra, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, goes on a 15-city tour today to "help engage individuals, businesses and communities," even though the foundation has called off fundraising. -Matthew Schuerman

The 84-year-old John Whitehead, a World War II veteran and former Goldman Sachs head, resigned as chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

"Four-and-a-half years is a long time for a supposedly retired person of advanced age and I hope to have more advanced age to enjoy," he said at a meeting this morning.

The Governor and Mayor will choose his successor at the L.M.D.C. At the foundation, The Times said this morning that Thomas Johnson, now chairman of the executive committee who already took over many administrative duties, would succeed him. Foundation spokeswoman Lynn Rasic would not confirm that, saying that the full foundation board would vote on the new chairman at the next board meeting, scheduled for July.

-Matthew Schuerman

Governor Pataki is usually the mild one when it comes to Ground Zero skirmishes. There must have been something he didn't like though about the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation saying it would stop fundraising, because his spokeswoman Joanna Rose has just sent this excoriating e-mail to reporters:

"The Mayor and the Governors are already on the same page--we have the Arad/Walker design and we have a $500 million budget, of which over $200 million is already committed from public sources. The Memorial Foundation should focus on their most important task-- fund-raising."

Huh, you mean the foundation voted on this without consulting its biggest donor, the state?

-Matthew Schuerman

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation came out with a press release formally acknowledging the new, higher estimates for Michael Arad's design, as reported this morning, and breaking out the $300 million infrastructure separately. In fact, the release never mentions the figure $300 million:

[T]he Foundation and by extension, its private donors, should not have to pay for site-wide infrastructure costs which include structural systems, mechanical fit out of the central chiller plant, and a police and emergency operations center.

Full release after jump.  read more »

Gretchen Dykstra, president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is raising money and overseeing construction there, has some questions about Mayor Bloomberg's statement today that $500 million should be enough for the memorial. Here's her statement:

The foundation is delighted that conversations are happening between the Mayor and the Governors of New York and New Jersey and looks forward to further clarification of the statements made today.

We imagine her questions may include: Is the $500 million supposed to cover the underground Sept. 11 museum too? And the shrinking Snohetta building? And just what is the city, which so far has not pledged money to the memorial, planning to do to help? For that matter, what is Michael R. Bloomberg, one of the city's leading philanthropists, planning to do to help? (His name does not appear on the foundation's most recent list of major donors.)

-Matthew Schuerman

The Post quotes two board members (anonymously) for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, ripping into their president, Gretchen Dykstra, for raising too little money.

"We're coming up on the fifth anniversary [of 9/11] and where's the fund-raising campaign? There's only one fifth anniversary."

Hey, not a bad idea.

-Matthew Schuerman

The Snohetta building, whose fate was uncertain after the International Freedom Center got shooed away last fall, just got $80 million closer to reality. That's the amount Governor Pataki is earmarking for the building in his executive budget, according to a source. And, because the building has shrunk considerably, that will be enough for its construction. It will house part of the museum dedicated to the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and serve as a visitors center. As a result, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation will not have to devote any of its own money to the structure, which some family members didn't like anyway. More details expected later today. -Matthew Schuerman  read more »

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has just debuted its interactive feature, storybuilder, which allows registrants to write a personal account of Sept. 11, upload an accompanying photograph, and submit entries.

The entries will live on the WTCMF Web site--after being vetted with the cooperation from oral history people from Columbia University--and will ultimately feature in some kind of interactive display at the memorial, whenever it is finally built.  read more »

The process raises some interesting questions about how the history of Sept. 11 will be recorded. Is there a mechanism to vet entries that are falsified? Does there need to be?

- Tom McGeveran