At 11:30 am September 11, 2011, there will be a commemorative ceremony to honor the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The ceremony will include a dedication at the future site of the Napa 9/11 Memorial Garden (click here for location). Read on to learn more about the project. Excerpt from the Bohemian
Beams Of Honor
Scheduled for completion next year, Napa's 9-11 memorial is already causing a countywide buzz
By: Christina Julian
Photos:Michael Amsler
The star-spangled group gathers, somewhat out of place given that it's a week before Memorial Day. Some push ahead with restless anticipation to get a closer look, others hang back. The uniformed stand at attention, and even the mayor is here, decked out in stars and stripes. Someone shouts, "Can I touch it?"
On a flatbed truck, giant steel beams are packed tight, each revealing a clear notation, scrawled in chalk: "Napa." If it weren't for the charred, gnarly pieces that protrude at whim, one wouldn't think to look twice at them.
But these are no ordinary beams. They're steel beams from the World Trade Center. Artist Gordon Huether walks through the crowd, and all eyes follow as he steps up to the truck. "It's been quite a ride," he says.
Indeed it has. Nearly two years, 30 tons and 3,000 miles in the making, the steel will be put to use for a 9-11 memorial sculpture in downtown Napa, located just off Main Street near Napa Creek. A site dedication ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 11, 2011, with an estimated completion of the memorial set for spring of 2012. While some chide the effort and others champion it, the Napa 9/11 Memorial Garden sculpture stands to be one of the largest of its kind, stretching over 23 feet high and weighing over 60,000 pounds.
The project originated in October 2009, when Darren Drake, fire marshal and division chief of the Napa Fire Department, received a communication from the September 11th Families' Association, in concert with the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. The teaming offered local communities around the globe an opportunity to create regional 9-11 memorials utilizing actual steel from the World Trade Center. Drake responded with a formal application, a community coalition formed, and a year later, the group requested the six steel beams that will serve as the nucleus of the Napa 9/11 Memorial Garden. Local trucking company Biagi Brothers donated transport of the steel, which arrived in Napa from New York with a welcoming ceremony on May 21.
Huether and landscape architect Gretchen Stranzl McCann each came into the project during its infancy and solidified their commitment by donating time and services pro bono. Huether went in person to New York Kennedy Airport's 80,000-square-foot Hanger 17, where the steel was housed and archived as crime scene evidence. Click here to continue reading
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