Sacred Space: Designing the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

Mark Wagner, AIA
Principal / Project Director
Davis Brody Bond, a Page company

With more than 30 years as a professional architect Mark Wagner has extensive experience in the design of award winning cultural projects. Through these years he has an established history of leading projects from initial planning and conceptualization, to high quality built outcomes. With an interest in complex projects in the public realm, his career has engaged in a diverse spectrum of building typologies. His professional pursuits have centered on experience based design, focusing on human interaction with space, program and context. As an experienced architect and designer his passion for thoughtful design solutions and ability to navigate many diverse complexities has placed him in the leadership role of the projects that he is engaged in. His professional focus continues to be the creation of a built environment that serves the programmatic mission of purpose and find its place in the surrounding community of which it ultimately belongs.

As Project Architect and Designer for the National September 11 Memorial Museum he conceptualized the museum based on his personal experiences. Its design is an exploration of memory, authenticity, scale, and emotion. The museum was designed acknowledging the importance of preserving history and memory for current and future generations, incorporating our cultural memories with the in-situ artifacts at the site and the artifacts removed from the site during the cleanup and recovery. During the design and construction phases of the project he actively engaged with clients, stakeholders, and the exhibit design team on key design issues, including major decisions about large artifact selection and placement and in-situ artifacts which were incorporated into the architecture of the museum. Through this process he was also charged with overseeing the daily progress of the Museum’s design and construction, navigating many building challenges due to the complexity of the numerous integrated construction projects at the World Trade Center site.

His familiarity with the details of the World Trade Center site began just days after the attacks of September 11, 2001 with his role as Project Architect for the World Trade Center Archive, a project involving the on-site selection and subsequent preservation of historic artifacts from Ground Zero. Through his understanding of objects, their importance as historic artifacts, and their ability to allow us to connect to history and memory, over 1000 artifacts were recovered. Many of which are now part of the permanent collection installed at the 9/11 Museum. Throughout his work at the World Trade Center site, he remained involved in the preservation and final disposition of the collected archive. During this process he had the opportunity to work closely with various museums and organizations across the country offering his unique understanding of the artifacts, their history and the complex issues relating to their preservation and installation.

Mark has directed many cultural projects from early planning and fundraising phases through design and construction. As project director for the firm’s IDIQ contract with the National Park Service he has contributed to a study which reestablishes the basic mission, needs and requirements of a “21st Century Visitor and Interpretive Center,” completed several predesign planning studies for NPS visitor centers. His work includes the conceptualization of new museums and the modernization of existing museums and interpretive centers. With a broad base of understanding and experience he has successfully addressed improvements to visitor experience, general operations, collection storage, conservation support, building systems and envelope. He has recently completed the firms design and renovation of the Hall of Gems and Minerals and the design and construction of the new Gilder Center of Science and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History. With a design lens focused on understanding the past, acknowledgment of the present, and an insightful look towards the future he continues his work with cultural institutions assisting and supporting their missions to meet the evolving needs of the communities that they serve.