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9/11 Museum gives preview of what they have in store – Metro US

9/11 Museum gives preview of what they have in store

The National Sept. 11th Memorial and Museum gave a preview Monday at the Downtown Marriott of what their first exhibit will look like when the museum opens.

The exhibit, to be called “In Memoriam,” will feature comprehensive profiles of all 2,983 victims of the September 11th attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The museum’s exhibitions will be housed below the memorial structure itself, at the bedrock level of the World Trade Center site.

Visitors will enter the museum at the glass and steel pavilion between the two memorial pools. The Museum’s director, Alice Greenwald, describes the physical space of the museum as a square within a square, “echoing the geometry of the pools above.”

The walls of the outer square will be covered floor-to-ceiling with portraits of the victims, and at interactive tables in the main area, visitors will be able to select individual profiles to learn more. These profiles are comprised of photos, written, audio or video-recorded memories, news clippings, eulogies, and photos of personal memorabilia.

But when will 9/11 Museum open?

There’s little doubt the “In Memoriam” exhibit will be a moving experience, but there’s just one question: When will the museum open?

Museum officials have no projected date of opening, as the museum remains stalled in a funding dispute with the Port Authority.

9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said that construction of the museum is currently 80 percent complete, and the foundation has raised all the money they need to finish the job. They have raised more than $450 million from donations spanning all 50 states, from individuals and corporations.

According to Michael Frazier, head of communications for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the total cost of the memorial and the museum combined is $700 million.

The projected annual cost of maintaining the museum — excluding other memorial costs — is $60 million per year, Frazier said.

So far, the museum has received 1,297 artifact donations. That includes six Stanley Cup rings from the wife of Boston Bruin Garnet “Ace” Bailey, who was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 175.

The watch of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beemer will also be on display at the museum. That watch was recovered in the wreckage of the plane near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Its calendar window was still displaying the number eleven.