We believe that peace is not just signed papers but rather a contract between generations for the building of a more promising and less threatening future.

The American idea is as promising imaginative and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.

I believe history will come to view 9/11 as an event on par with November 22 1963 the date on which John F. Kennedy was murdered cutting short a presidency that was growing ever more promising. Dreams died that day in Dallas it is easy to imagine the 1960s turning out rather differently had President Kennedy lived.

When I started this project I was a young architect. I was very apprehensive about any changes to the design. Whether I wanted to or not I learned that you can accept some changes to its form without compromising its intent. But it's a leap of faith that I didn't want to make initially - to put it mildly.

What's important is promising something to the people not actually keeping those promises. The people have always lived on hope alone.