by Manny Romero

ASU alumnus Keith Kaseman designed a Sept. 11 memorial recently selected for construction in Washington D.C.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made the announcement at a news conference March 3. Kaseman says it's a project that he feels privileged to be a part of.

"We were speechless when we found out,"says Kaseman, who earned his degree in architecture from ASU in 1995 and a master's degree in architecture from Columbia University in 2001. "It's such an overwhelming honor."

Kaseman's design for the Pentagon memorial called "Light Benches,"will be built on a 1.93-acre plot on the Pentagon reservation near the spot where the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack occurred on the building. The memorial encompasses the entire memorial site and includes 184 benches with the name of each victim engraved into the face of the bench. The benches will be comprised of cast, clear, anodized aluminum polyester composite matrix set on an eight-inch concrete pad for stabilization.

Kaseman says each bench will be positioned according to the age of the victim, progressing from the youngest, age 3, to the oldest, age 71. Each memorial bench will have a glowing light pool set underneath. The site also will have clusters of trees throughout to provide shading and a more intimate atmosphere.

"We wanted a design that would invite and provoke personal interpretation and allow people to think, but not tell them what to think and how to feel,"says Kaseman, who co-designed the memorial with his partner Julie Beckman, of Kaseman Beckman Amsterdam Studio, Manhattan, N.Y. "This is a very personal memorial; one that from the beginning we wanted for the family members first and foremost to feel a closeness to."

Kaseman's design, projected to cost between $4 million and $7 million, was one of 1,126 submitted and was unanimously selected by a 11-member jury, that included family members of Sept. 11 Pentagon victims, former secretaries of defense and American artistic leaders.

"I think it's really unique that the project could speak to all of those voices,"says ASU Architecture Professor Max Underwood. "I think that's what really makes great projects."

Underwood taught Kaseman and has continued to stay in touch with him. He says seeing former students achieve their dreams is the ultimate reward for teaching.

"You teach so that people can someday do more than you dream of,"Underwood says. "To teach someone is to empower them and it's great to see when the end result is something this amazing."

"It's important to stay in touch with students after they graduate,"he says, "and I think it's really our responsibility as faculty members to mentor them and be there to help them whenever possible. For us it's just another confirmation of the excellence of our program at ASU."

Kaseman says groundbreaking for "Light Benches"begins in June. For information about the Pentagon memorial, visit the Web at http://memorial.pentagon.mil

Keith Kaseman '95, architect of the Pentagon Memorial commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, explains his design during a presentation with Julie Beckman.
DoD photo by Helene C. Stikkel