The Beginning   

Greg Hess at 9/11 Memorial Dedication

 Indianapolis Firefighter and Paramedic, Greg Hess, arrived home from a 24-hour shift just in time to see a second commercial airliner fly into New York City’s World Trade Center.  Sixteen hours later, he and the rest of Indiana Task Force 1, a FEMA Search and Rescue Team, stood at Ground Zero, assisting in rescue and recovery efforts.  ITF-1 labored in lower Manhattan alongside other rescue workers for eight grueling days.  For Greg Hess, the experience equaled the horror an earlier generation endured at Pearl Harbor.   

 The Idea   

 In January 2010, Greg learned that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was accepting petitions for Ground Zero artifacts from communities that wanted to establish permanent local memorials.  He felt strongly that Indianapolis needed its own memorial to the events of September 11.  To meet that need, Greg established Project 9/11 Indianapolis and began the process of petitioning for artifacts.  With the support of Indianapolis civic leaders, Greg sought and gained approval to receive two 22-foot steel beams from the World Trade Center to form the basis of the project 9/11 Indianapolis Memorial.   

The Project   

Now that Greg had secured permission to acquire the two steel beams, the big question in his mind was “now what”?  Greg started out on the quest to find a location for the memorial to be erected.  He approached several Indianapolis city leaders and was given several sites to choose from for the memorial.   

Again Greg came to a road block and again he asked “now what”?  He had the idea for a 9/11 memorial, the steel beams, and a site where the memorial was to go.  But, he didn’t have any idea what the memorial would look like nor did he know how much it would cost.  He did have an idea on what he could do to raise money but he still didn’t know how much.   

 The Call November 2010   

Greg did the most logical thing possible; he let his fingers do the walking.  He looked in the yellow pages and saw Crown Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery listed as a Monument Dealer.  He made the call and got in touch with Ryan Petersen, Crown Hill’s Family Service Manager.  Greg explained to Ryan who he was and what he wanted to do, so together they came up with a very rough design for the memorial.  The trouble was they didn’t know exactly what the steel beams were going to look like, so the first attempt depicted two monuments broken in half with two bent steel beams in the middle.   

Ryan contacted me for pricing and a rendering. Crown Hill had never been involved installing a memorial outside of its property.  So, not knowing what to expect, I mentioned to Ryan that it would be good for me to meet with Greg and find out what he wanted from us.  Crown Hill definitely did not have the expertise on the installation of two 20 foot steel beams.   

 January 2011 the Meeting   

After doing a little research and working with Cold Springs Granite Company, it was obvious that in order to get this done I needed the help and support from a of a lot of people.  Namely experts!  I was advised they would need architectural plans in order to do a cost estimate.   

At the time Crown Hill was doing an expansion on their Funeral Home and I was working with an architect from Gibraltar Design out of Indianapolis.  So I approached them and asked if they would assist me with this project.  I set up our first meeting with Greg, Ryan, and Gibraltar Design architect, Bill Cotterman to get this project rolling.   

Considering this was my first face to face meeting with Greg Hess, I really didn’t know much about what he had done with the 9/11 project.  I had asked Keith Norwalk, President of Crown Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery, to attend as a representative of Crown Hill.  But as the meeting went on it was obvious that Greg was potentially a one man show and needed a lot of help to make this project become a reality.   

First we talked about fund raising and it occurred to me that we had an expert in fund raising sitting in the room, Keith Norwalk.  Then we talked about design, and here was Bill Cotterman.  Then we talked about Granite and that is where I stepped in.  There were still a couple of pieces of the puzzle still to fill.  And that was construction and installation.   

In thinking about the installation I finally realized who better to do the installation than Crown Hill’s Superintendent, Bob Milne.  Bob had done numerous projects at Crown Hill and he did have the background and expertise in heading up a project like this.  Another piece fell into place.  Construction was my last piece to fill and I called a good friend of mine who had done several projects at Crown Hill, Steve Rilenge of VP Construction.  He agreed with great gratitude that I would consider him for such a worthwhile project.  Now all the pieces were in place and there was no stopping the runaway snowball.   

The Committees   

We actually set up three different committees for this project; Fundraising, headed up by Keith Norwalk; Design, headed up by Bill Cotterman; Construction and Installation; headed up by me.   

Keith enlisted some of the top experts in the Public Relations and Fundraising field for his committee.  He acquired the services of Bob Barrett, a professional fund raiser; Alan Zuckerman, advertising and public relations; and Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis city councilman.   

Keith’s committee worked with Greg and came up with ideas for fundraising, advertisement, scheduled events, and supplied a multitude of press releases to keep the public informed of the project.   

Bill Cotterman worked with Greg in developing a meaningful design.  Understanding what Greg’s intent was the most important aspect of designing the memorial and the first rendering Bill and his staff did captured it right on!  They also enlisted local artist, Ryan Feeney and his coworker Donald Mee, to design and sculpt a bronze eagle to be placed on top of one of the steel beams.  Not only was Ryan an artist but his full time job is with the Indianapolis Fire Department.   

 Bill, through his contacts, got the help of a structural engineer and landscape architect to help with the design work and acquiring necessary permits.    He was also very diligent in putting together schedules and timelines to meet Greg’s goal of dedicating this memorial on the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.   

The construction committee was greatly challenged because we were charged with getting the memorial done in time.  Among the challenges we faced were weather, timeline, material, manpower, permitting, etc.  Steve Rilenge’s responsibilities were getting the site work done, pouring the foundation, installing the electrical, removing and pouring a sidewalk, getting the beams installed, and pouring the slab.  Bob Milne’s responsibility was to install all of the granite.  I had the easiest of the responsibilities in ordering the granite and making sure the bills were paid.  All of this to be done by September 11, 2011!   

The Design   

Bill Cotterman took the design that Cold Springs Granite did and brought together a very thoughtful theme for what we were now calling “Project 9/11 Indianapolis”.   

His vision was to recreate both emotionally and symbolically the experience of being at the World Trade Center site.  His purpose was to make the memorial real today and for future generations to always remember and never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.   

The focus was to be the two steel beams from the fallen World Trade Center towers that were acquired from the New York, New Jersey Port Authority.  The beams would take center stage at the memorial site where visitors could walk up and actually touch them.   

The columns would be situated on a 30 x 30 granite paver plaza and represent Tower One and Tower Two of the world Trade Center.  Additionally, a pavement pattern would be installed in a diagonal manner in the sidewalk to represent the great height of the World Trade Center towers prior to destruction.   

A life-size custom bronze eagle with an open wing span was to sit on top of one of the beams to represent the American spirit and resolve.  The bronze eagle would face east towards the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and the crash site of Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.   

A  seven-foot tall polished granite wall on the west side of the plaza would serve as a backdrop to the memorial columns.  The wall was to be separated by a gap to appear broken.  This would symbolize what happened to the United States that tragic day.  The memorial wall has inscriptions that speak to the mix of emotions and an expression of hope and unity.   

The plaza also would have four permanent granite benches that are replicas of the original benches from the World Trade Center plaza.  There would also be four separate monuments with the timelines of each plane crash.   

Seven Indiana native trees, representing the seven buildings of the World Trade Center, and a low evergreen hedge define the space around the memorial while maintaining the visibility from all directions.  Opposite the memorial wall would be a Freedom Tree, a specimen redbud with colorful under planting with bold color representing the resolve of the American spirit.   

April 9, 2011   

Greg Hess returns from New York with the two beams on a truck supplied by Sodrel Trucking.  The fanfare was overwhelming as they reached the border at Richmond, Indiana.  The weather was most uncooperative as the skies opened up and the rains came pouring down.  But, the city of Richmond turned out in great numbers to greet and see what Greg had acquired.   

On the trip towards Indianapolis down Interstate 70, the beams were escorted by the Murat Shriner Honor Guard, a National Guard Huey Helicopter, and 6,000 motorcycles.  Not only was there a parade of thousands but every overpass between Richmond and Indianapolis had people cheering and waving flags as the beams passed.   

As the day passed and the welcoming ceremony got closer, the skies parted, and the sun came out to greet the two steel beams to their new home in Indianapolis.  A crowd of several thousand people attended the welcoming ceremony with cheers and awe. Project 9/11 Indianapolis was getting closer to becoming a reality.   

Fundraising   

With Project 9/11 Indianapolis going in full steam the fundraising committee had its challenges to raise the money needed to erect the memorial.  Steve Rilenge and I put a construction price tag on the project of $350,000 but we also knew there needed to be money raised for future maintenance.  So, Keith and his committee set out to contact corporate donors while Greg spent time taking the beams to many events hoping to raise money through individual donations.   

Local media joined in with coverage on everything we did covering where the beams were and helping keep the public aware of the need to raise money.  One theme that was constantly told was the entire project was going to be done through private donations.  T-shirts were designed with the Project 9/11 logo and sold to raise money.  A commemorative coin was designed and sold also to raise funds.  A local television station (channel 13, WTHR, NBC) held a car-a-thon for 13 hours one day as well as requested donations through their website.  A local supermarket chain (Marsh Supermarkets) helped sponsor the beams at the Indiana State Fair as well as committing to a large donation over the next two years.    

Keith and Bob Barrett along with Greg contacted hundreds of potential donors seeking donations.  Their effort and commitment was to leave no stone unturned in their efforts.   

Design work   

Bill Cotterman’s team worked diligently with Cold Springs to get construction drawings done.  The process was tedious and the approval process took longer than they wanted.    

Progress and fingers crossed   

On June 22, 2011 I signed an order with Cold Springs for the 9/11 Memorial Granite.  Indianapolis was well on their way to getting a Memorial for 9/11.  The time clock was ticking and we had 81 days to complete the project.    

In the meantime the Fundraising committee scheduled a ground breaking ceremony attended by the mayor and several dignitaries from Indianapolis.  The coverage by the media gave us a boost in our fundraising efforts and also attention to the project.   

Construction   

On July 18, 2011 we began site work and digging the footers for the slab.  Steve Rilenge had the beams delivered to a steel fabricating plant to prep the beams for installation on the site.   

On August 18, 2011 the granite was delivered from Cold Springs.  The granite walls were immediately installed and the process of separating the granite pavers began.  We now had 24 days to complete the project and time was starting to work against us.   

Bob Milne and the crew from Crown Hill now had their task ahead of them.   Bob’s commitment to the project was outstanding and there was no stopping him or the volunteers he gathered.  They weren’t going to stop until the project was completed on time.   

On September 7, 2011 it was time to set the two steel beams and install the bronze eagle.  Steve Rilenge approached the Iron Workers Union, Local 22 for help.  In the spirit of the 9/11 project, they gave what was needed of their time and expertise.  They installed and set the beams and welded the eagle perched on top of one of the beams.  They did all of this because they all wanted too.  

On September 9, 2011 four monuments were installed by Bob and his crew.  Each monument represented the timeline of each plane crash.  At that time Project 9/11 Indianapolis was finished.  Bob and his crew put the finishing touches on everything, covered the eagle, wall, and four monuments to be unveiled at 4:00 PM, September 11, 2011.  Ten years to the day from that tragic day in New York City.  

Several thousand Hoosiers attended the unveiling of the 9/11 Memorial in Indianapolis on Sunday, September 11, 2011.  There were cheers and tears as each part of the memorial was unveiled.  Flight attendants unveiled the four monuments.  Keith Norwalk, Bob Milne, Steve Rilenge, and Bill Cotterman unveiled the two walls.  Ryan Feeney and Donald Mee unveiled the eagle.   

 Project 9/11 Indianapolis was complete and will stand for all to see forever.     

 “WE WILL NEVER FORGET”