Memorial will be ready in time for the 20th anniversary on Sept. 11, 2021
A memorial honoring those who died in the attacks on 9/11 is being planned as part of the Panoway on Wayzata Bay initiative.
The memorial will be incorporated into the new lakeside plaza park, which was unveiled in late summer alongside the reconstruction of Lake Street from Broadway Avenue to Barry Avenue.
Located in a grove of birch trees, the memorial monument is meant to serve as a quiet tribute and reflective space for people to think about the lives lost in the terrorist attacks.
The memorial will be ready in time for the 20th anniversary on Sept. 11, 2021, said Andrew Mullin, chair of the Wayzata Conservancy, an independent nonprofit organization that was established to serve as an advocate for the Panoway project and seek private funding to pay for development, maintenance and operating costs.
Mullin said the initial idea for the memorial dates back to 2011, around the time of the 10-year anniversary. The City of Wayzata was given several small pieces of the fallen World Trade Center buildings by the Aamoth family of Wayzata, whose 32-year-old son Gordy Aamoth Jr. died in the 9/11 attacks.
“That kicked off the city evaluating how they might put together some sort of 9/11 memorial,” Mullin said. “A number of different sites were explored and once the new park space was created along the lake, they felt that might be a good spot.”
The design is a collaboration between Civitas, the Denver-based urban design and landscape architecture firm that developed the plans for the Panoway project, and Peter Aamoth, an associate of Minneapolis-based James Dayton Design and the youngest brother of Gordy Aamoth Jr.
The concept for the memorial shows two 27-foot-long granite plinths meant to be reminiscent of the iconic silhouette cast by the Twin Towers on the New York City skyline. The plinths will serve as benches for the community to gather and reflect with two raised areas for displaying text and the artifacts salvaged from the World Trade Center.
The Wayzata Conservancy is currently raising money for the memorial. To learn more about the effort, visit wayzataconservancy.org/911mn.
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