I had been working on a project in New Jersey, just outside NYC, for more than a year in 2000 and 2001. The building opened in May and in the middle of August, Comdisco had a celebration for all those that worked so hard on the project. Madeline was invited, and so we spent a couple of days in New York City to coincide with the business trip. Less than a month later, 9/11 happened and the city and my life changed forever (as did so many). The building I completed was now packed with a couple thousand displaced people from the World Trade Center towers. I was busy designing and having more areas built in the building. With that, I was able to visit Ground Zero about a week and a half after the towers fell.

2001—New York City

As part of my trip with Madeline, we stayed primarily around mid-Manhattan and the Times Square area. We saw the Empire State building, the Disney Store, St. Thomas Cathedral, and toured Central Park. We also watched this street artist create a picture of the WTC and we bought a picture of the towers, not knowing they would be gone a few weeks later

The devastation I saw on September 22 was unreal. The waffle cone images you saw on TV didn’t give you a sense of how big the remains were. The Marriott hotel to the right used to be an 8-story building, but it was now about 3 stories. Buildings surrounding the area had debris thrust through their windows and sides of the building, like King Kong climbed them and caused some damage.