Families look to memorial to ease grief

By Vince Crawley
Times staff

Jim Laychak finds it unsettling that the Pentagon was rebuilt so quickly, which is one reason he's working with the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure a planned memorial to the Sept. 11 attack is both permanent and meaningful.

His brother, David Laychak - a budget analyst on the first floor of E Ring, near Corridor 4 - was among the 125 in the Pentagon who went to work that day and never came home.

About 2,500 people worldwide met the August registration deadline to enter the design contest for a public memorial just outside the Pentagon. Between 800 and 1,200 of those registered were expected to meet the Sept. 11 deadline for submitting a single 30-inch by 40-inch concept drawing.

The number of entrants almost certainly will surpass the 600 designs submitted for the once-controversial Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which opened in 1982 and is the most visited landmark in Washington.

In the weeks following the attacks, news of the Phoenix Project - a round-the-clock effort to erase the work of the terrorist hijackers and rebuild the Pentagon by Sept. 11, 2002 - spread among the families of the victims.

"People were very upset" about the swift timetable, said Laychak, 43, who is helping his brother's wife, Laurie, and their two children.

Many family members worried that their crushing loss would be forgotten as the final slab of Indiana limestone was put back into place so quickly.

Laychak found a suggestion box at the military's assistance center for Pentagon families. He filled out several comment cards, including an idea that the newly rebuilt section should be of a different color to remind future visitors of what had happened.

His idea wasn't accepted. For now, the new limestone is lighter than the surrounding façade, but is expected to match the rest of the building's exterior after a decade of weathering.

Instead, Laychak was invited to be among 10 or so families who are formally serving as advisers to the memorial project.

Their views strongly influenced the location of the memorial - 1.93 acres on the Pentagon lawn, within 300 feet of the crash site. Other proposed spots, including a place of honor at neighboring Arlington National Cemetery, were considered too distant. The site will be close to the Pentagon heliport, but defense officials are considering moving the landing strip, which has not been used since the attack.

The final design remains unknown. Eleven jurors will look over the hundreds of entries and select five finalists in early October. Finalists will then have two months to prepare more detailed proposals. The winning design will be unveiled a few days before Christmas.

Jurors include a half-dozen artists and architects, plus several dignitaries: former defense secretaries Harold Brown and Melvin Laird; Lynne Cheney, wife of the vice president; Carolyn Shelton, wife of retired Army Gen. Henry Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Wendy Chamberlain, a Washington graphic artist.

Congress has appropriated $2 million to build the memorial. The Army Corps of Engineers' target date to complete the project is September 2003.