Talk: 9/11 memorial trees

FAYETTEVILLE — Matthew Donham, a partner at PWP Landscape Architecture in Berkley, Calif., will be in town Monday (April 23) to talk about his firm’s work with the National September 11th Memorial.

His talk, titled “Structured Forest: The Trees of the National 9/11 Memorial,” will commence at 1:30 p.m. in Hembree Auditorium of the University of Arkansas’ Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building (Room 107E). Admission is free.

The National September 11th Memorial commemorates the victims of the attacks at the Pentagon, at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the World Trade Center site, both on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. Two gigantic voids – in the footprints of the Twin Towers – and a surrounding forest of oak trees form the core of the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City and provide a place for contemplation and remembrance within this revitalized urban center.

Donham has worked the on the national 9/11 memorial for eight years. He built some of the first landscape models for the memorial before moving into a design management role on the project. He coordinated staff and consultants, and attended and led countless meetings over the extended implementation of the politically and physically complex project. Last summer, he oversaw final installation details in preparation for the opening ceremony of the memorial on Sept. 11, 2011.