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Michael Arad is one of the country's brightest young architects, and his design for the World Trade Center Memorial was chosen from more than 5,000 entries.
Arad's design, "Reflecting Absence," features a pair of reflecting pools, cascading waterfalls surrounding the names of the dead, and a "living park" at ground level symbolizing life and rebirth.
Last spring Arad spoke at a symposium on Architecture and Memory at Georgia Tech. He offered his insight on the design itself and the grueling selection process. Arad credited Associate Dean Doug Allen and others in the College of Architecture for their help with his design.
"This is where it started. My development as an architect began here at Georgia Tech," said Arad. "When I needed help, I didn't hesitate to contact them, even when I was developing my ideas for the World Trade Center Memorial. They have been helpful through the whole process and continue to help me through the process now."
Arad moved to New York City in 1999, working for Kohn Pedersen Fox. His list of projects included the Union Station Tower, a skyscraper in Hong Kong and the awarding-winning Espirito Santo Plaza in Miami. He has spoken at numerous events, including Dartmouth College's 235th Convocation Ceremony, The Jerusalem Seminar in Architecture, and most recently at an AIA panel discussion, "Learning from Lower Manhattan," with Daniel Libeskind and Santiago Calatrava. His work has been published and reviewed in several magazines, including Art in America, Arquitectura Viva, ID Magazine, Architectural Record, and several newspapers, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Now a partner with Handel Architects in New York City, Arad is a native of Israel. His father, Moshe Arad, was an Israeli diplomat.
Arad received a Master of Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999 and a Bachelor of Science degree from Dartmouth College in 1994. | 