Contractors are putting the finishing touches on the Oklahoma City National Memorial in preparation for its April 19 unveiling, which will coincide with the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 men, women and children, many of whom were federal employees.
Two dedication ceremonies are planned for April 19. The first, at 8:30 a.m., will be a private ceremony for survivors, families of the deceased and rescue workers. The second, at 5:00 p.m., will be open to the public.
The memorial's design-by Hans and Torrey Butzer and Sven Berg of an architectural firm in Cambridge, Mass.-was chosen from more than 600 alternatives submitted from every state and 23 countries. The April 19 dedication will inaugurate the outdoor, symbolic portions of the memorial.
The memorial will feature a block-long reflecting pool surrounded grass and trees, including an American elm known as the "survivor tree" because it was the only one to make it through the blast unscathed. The names of survivors will be listed on the Murrah Building's only remaining wall. Most dramatically, 168 empty chairs with lighted glass bases will be organized in nine rows, representing the floors on which the victims died.
A museum is scheduled to open on the site in November. The museum-located in a newly renovated portion of the Journal-Record newspaper building, which was damaged in the bombing-will recapitulate the events of April 19, 1995 and display artifacts and testimony from survivors.
Linked to the April unveiling is a three-day conference on terrorism prevention. The April 17-19 conference, sponsored by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and the RAND Corporation, will include academic experts and representatives of the FBI and Scotland Yard. The conference's organizers say it will "assess developments in terrorism over the past two decades, map future directions and make policy recommendations for prevention and consequence management."
A second conference is scheduled for this fall. It will address technology and counterterrorism. The state of Oklahoma appropriated $5 million for the memorial and Congress came up with an additional $5 million to establish it as the Park Service's 376th unit, to be run in partnership with a private trust.
The current tally of expenses includes $10,310,681 for the outdoor memorial, $6,977,427 for the memorial center, $550,586 for the memorial archives, $5,000,000 for the memorial institute, $1,307,841 for administration, and $5,000,000 for an endowment-bringing the total cost to $29,146,535. More than $5 million is still needed to pay off those costs, the memorial foundation says.
Further information on the memorial and the events of April 19 can be obtained at connections.oklahoman.net/memorial/ and at www.168days.com. The phone number for the foundation is 1-888-542-HOPE.