PortSide maritime 9-11 exhibit

A multimedia exhibit on the steamer LILAC docked at Hudson River Park's Pier 25

PortSide NewYork created a multi-media exhibit with photography, text, videos, oral history and a reading room about the extraordinary and unsung role of mariners responding to 9/11, from evacuation to rubble removal.

On 9/11, local mariners were responsible for an evacuation greater than Dunkirk -- between 350,000 and 500,000 people were transported from lower Manhattan by boat in just 9 hours.

The evacuation of Dunkirk took 9 days to move just under 350,000. Another key difference is that the Manhattan effort was begun spontaneously by civilian boat operators. It is a story of fast-moving ingenuity, courage and generosity of spirit.

The effort rapidly merged with the Coast Guard and Sandy Hook Pilots to involve all sectors of the marine community. Within hours, more than 100 public and private vessels operated on scene. While the evacuation was still underway, the mariners began supplying Ground Zero. They sourced and delivered to rescue workers fuel, crucial supplies, and river water for firefighting.

Largely unreported, the marine role continued for many months. All the rubble was removed from Manhattan by water (2,400 barges or 93,346 trucks' worth), except for the ritual last column which left by truck. An evolving system of emergency and temporary ferries and ferry terminals existed for two years until PATH train service was restored.

9/11 underlined that Manhattan is an island; and in creating the exhibit, PortSide NewYork makes the point that the maritime 9/11 story has workaday implications for New York City as it develops new plans for its waterfront.

Fittingly, the exhibit is installed on a ship - the former U.S. Lighthouse Tender Lilac - docked at a pier from which Ground Zero rubble was removed, Hudson River Park’s Pier 25.

Exhibition Design:
This exhibit was curated by PortSide NewYork Director Carolina Salguero who was working as a photojournalist on 9/11. She was the only photojournalist to arrive at Ground Zero in her own boat, and created award-winning images of scenes on the water and at Ground Zero. See videos about her 9/11 reporting here and here.

The exhibit was planned and designed in a 2.5 week charrette by Paul S. Alter, a principal at LHSA+DP, Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership. LHSA+DP is a NYC based architecture and design firm that creates "narrative" architecture and interpretive exhibition projects.

The firm has been recognized for its immersive and innovative approach to design as interpretation and garnered numerous awards for its work in both the public and private sector.

LHSA+DP has created exhibitions and installations for such venerable institutions as the Smithsonian Institute, Cooper Union, The New York Historical Society, The New York Hall of Science, and the Chicago Academy of Science.

A passionate sailor and amateur mariner himself, Alter worked during 2011 with PortSide as a desigNYC advisor to the BoatBox project, another PortSide waterfront endeavor.

With practically no time and budget, he and Yun Chu Chou, a summer intern, jumped in wholeheartedly, embracing the ship as an integral part of the exhibit experience.

A journey through the ship and through the time-line of the 9/11 events became a key organizing structure for the exhibit. They focused on the exhibit's three key themes, 1) Rescue and Evacuation 2) Rubble Removal and 3) Lessons Learned.

A quick site visit onboard the LILAC revealed that visitors should be led through the inherently narrow, awkward and difficult passageways of the ship and that these tight circulation spaces would make atmospheric galleries.

One hall was filled with images overhead and image+word collages on the sides. Two small cabins offer a respite from dense imagery and provide oral histories and videos. At the the stern of the ship, a grand semi-circular cabin was was made into a reading room where visitors could quietly sit and drill down into more detail.

The multi-media experience is also multi-sensory with river breezes passing through open portholes, the constant gentle movement of LILAC, the smack of the waves against the hull, and the sounds and smells from the waterfront and the ship itself, all of which becomes integral to the visitor's journey and helps evoke the mariner's experience.

This is an elemental installation meant to provoke thought about the mariner's world and to enhance people's understanding of the critical role that mariners played in responding to the 9/11 emergencies.

More about the Lilac Preservation Project:
The U.S. Lighthouse Tender Lilac was launched on May 26, 1933. Built for the U.S. Lighthouse Service, she carried supplies and personnel to lighthouses and maintained buoys. The duties of the Lighthouse Service were later absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Lilac was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1972. She was the last ship in the Coast Guard fleet to operate with reciprocating steam engines and is unique in still possessing her original engines. Lilac is on the National Register of Historic Places and is eligible to become a National Historic Landmark. The ship is owned by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project.