This summer, the Pentagon Renovation Program announced the selection of Centex Lee LLC as contractor for the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. Principal Jeff Lee joined PENREN and Pentagon Real Estate and Facilities officials, members of the Pentagon Memorial Family Steering Committee, and Centex Construction company president John Tarpey in a contract signing ceremony on August 15. (http://memorial.pentagon.mil/photopg/03-08-15%20021%20MEM-web.jpg)

Lee and Associates formed a joint venture with the Centex Construction Company of Fairfax Virginia to pursue this important opportunity. Centex Lee handpicked a team of select sub-consultants, including engineering firms Delon Hampton and Associates (civil) and Syska Hennesey (MEP), fountain consultants CMS Collaborative, Light’n Up lighting designers, and the Low Impact Development Center Inc., with Valley Crest, MC Dean Inc. and Southland Industries.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. The crash resulted in the deaths of 59 passengers and crewmembers aboard the aircraft and 125 military and civilian personnel within the Pentagon, as well as many injuries and substantial damage to the building. Shortly after the attack, Congress authorized the Secretary of Defense to establish a permanent memorial on the grounds of the Pentagon.

The Centex Lee team joins forces with Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman of Kaseman Beckman Amsterdam Studio (KBAS), winners of an international competition that determined the concept design for the Memorial. The Memorial will be located at the southwest corner of the Pentagon, on two acres of land directly aligned in front of the point where Flight 77 hit the building on September 11.

The Memorial Park is inscribed with one hundred eighty-four cast metal memorial units, each dedicated to an individual victim. Elegant in its self-supporting form, the memorial unit is at once a glowing light pool, a cantilevered bench and a place for the permanent inscription of each victim's name. The field of memorial units is arranged as a timeline of the victim's ages, from 3 to 71. The western edge of the site is defined with an "age wall" that grows an inch in height relative to the age represented by the rows of memorial units. (http://memorial.pentagon.mil/renderings.htm)

The site was chosen in April 2002, and the announcement of an open, two-stage competition followed in May. The families of the victims and a jury of design professionals evaluated more than a thousand qualified entries, with six finalists selected in October. The winning design was announced in March of 2003, and the design/build procurement process began in April.

As with all national memorials, the project will be built with private funds. Family members of those who were killed at the Pentagon have established the Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc., to raise money for the memorial. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to the Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc.