The World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was an open, international memorial contest, initiated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) according to the specifications of the architect Daniel Libeskind, to design a memorial for the World Trade Center site (later renamed the National September 11 Memorial & Museum) at the under-construction World Trade Center in New York City. The competition began April 28, 2003 and the winner—Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting Absence—was revealed January 14, 2004, in a press conference at Federal Hall National Memorial. The contest garnered 5,201 entries from 63 nations and 49 U.S. states, out of 13,683 registrants from all 50 U.S. states and 94 nations, making it the largest design competition in history.
