Entrants from 62 nations submitted designs for a memorial to honor the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks and an earlier attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
Officials from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project, call the response extraordinary. They say 5200 submissions from 49 U.S. states and 62 nations, from Albania to Venezuela, have made it the largest design competition in history.
A 13 member jury of artists, architects, downtown residents and members of victims' families will evaluate how the design proposals express the competition's mission statement and select five finalists.
"Our jury will select a design that will forever memorialize the lives so tragically lost and serve as a most eloquent expression of triumph over the evils of terror," said Anna Contina, vice president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
The jury will then ask finalists to further develop their design proposals. The winning design is expected in October. The LMDC had hoped to chose a memorial design in time for the second anniversary of the 2001 attack, this September 11, but decided not to rush the process.
The memorial will be located in the so-called footprints of the twin towers. An earlier international competition has already determined the design for the rebuilding effort at the site of the World Trade Center.
