Elmhurst officials gathered recently in front of the city’s Fire Department Station 2 to break ground for the First Responder Memorial Plaza which will feature a commissioned sculpture by artist Jason Peot evoking the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan.
That attack killed nearly 3,000 people, including 19 terrorists who took over five commercial airlines, including two that struck and brought down the Twin Towers.
Peot’s sculpture includes two structures of stacked open white cubes representing the two towers, tied together by a vertical section of train rail from the underground terminal below the towers.
That 13-foot-long section of rail has been with the Elmhurst Fire Department for years, according to Elmhurst Fire Department Deputy Chief Steve Reynolds, who spoke before the groundbreaking.
“This rail was a portion of the rail system which ran under the World Trade Center,” Reynolds said. “That rail terminal was used to evacuate many people prior to the towers collapsing. Now, years later, we’re finally going to be able to display the rail as part of this sculpture.”
Plans are to dedicate the sculpture and plaza in front of Fire Station 2, 601 S. York Street, on Sept. 11 of this year, marking the 23rd anniversary of the attack.
Sculptor Peot also spoke at the groundbreaking, saying of all the public art projects he’s been involved in, he had not been involved in one that was as big a team effort as the Elmhurst work.
“The piece is basically a remembrance of the World Trade Center,” Peot said. “with the design of the twin towers. An open structure and a structure of strength and looking to the future and the rail …literally ties it together.”
Peot, a widely recognized artist who is a professor a professor of art and design at Harper College in Palatine, said he was honored to be part of the project, which he called, “an important and exciting addition to public art in Elmhurst.”
In his remarks, Reynolds said a number of Elmhurst businesses and residents have contributed to the project, contributing about $150,000 of the anticipated $200,000 total cost.
“We’re nearing the finish line of our $200,000 goal,” Reynolds said.
Information on honoring someone with a brick paver on the plaza is available at elmhurstfiredepartment.org/brickpaver
Reynolds said after the memorial is dedicated, visitors can visit to reflect not only on the sacrifice of those first responders who lost their lives in the terrorist attack but can also “reflect on how the country came together then.”
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
