This project is a competition entry for a memorial to honor the the victims of September 11, 2001, to create a monument of dignity, remembrance, and healing.

The proposed memorial is a pyramid built of polished optical glass. Its transparency is a contrast to the Pentagon building's visual solidity. The pyramid, effectively a prism, shall be oriented so that on the morning of September 11, each year, the prismatic refraction of sunlight through it shall cast the full spectrum of light across the Pentagon.

The hope is that the symbolism of such a moment shall convey hope, healing and optimism to all people and through all time.

The pyramid is a traditional memorial form. It has been used by Egyptians, Romans, Mayans, and cultures influenced by them to create a site of permanence and dignity. Its abstraction and purity of geometry lend it to a connection to the absolute, to the eternal.

It is also a form which will uniquely compliment its site. The pyramid will compliment the absolutist geometry of the Pentagon building, as well as the collection of memorial forms already in place in Washington D.C. - from the dome of the Jefferson Memorial to the abstract planes of the Vietnam Memorial.

Aaron McDonald Architect, One Union Square 903, New York, New York 10003