OSU prof's design for Flight 93 memorial makes cut

COLUMBUS (AP) -- A design partly conceived by an Ohio State University professor has been chosen as one of five finalists for a memorial to a hijacked plane that crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
"Fields, Forests, Fences" was picked out of 1,011 submissions for the memorial that will honor the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93.
Laurel McSherry, head of OSU's landscape architecture program, created the design, working on the presentation with Arizona State University architecture professor Terry Surjan.
Flight 93 was one of four planes hijacked by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 Commission determined the hijackers crashed the plane into a field as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.
McSherry and Surjan's design features a ribbon of hemlock and birch trees leading visitors to the crash site, along with urns filled with mulch from trees that caught fire in the crash. Visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial also would be able to inscribe messages on metal forestry tags and hang them on a fence.
"It will provide the opportunity for people to participate in the site and leave a memento," McSherry said.
Finalists, selected by a panel on Friday, receive a $25,000 honorarium to complete detailed proposals to be submitted by June 15. The winner will be announced Sept. 11.
The monument could cost up to $20 million.