Ground Zero Museum Workshop
Location: 420 W 14th St fl 2, New York, NY 10014
Ground Zero Museum Workshop opened September 7, 2005, in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Many people came together to help create the most realistic account of the Ground Zero “Recovery Period” ever created. 9/11 Family members, members of the FDNY, first responders, sound studios, foreign language voiceover specialists and experts in the field of graphics and technology all believed in what our vision was and came together to bring the private world of “inside Ground Zero” to life for you.
As the Official Photographer at Ground Zero for the FDNY Fire Unions, spending 7 months inside the World Trade Center site was a life-changing experience. After a trip to the Anne Frank House helped me fully understand the horrors of the Holocaust, I came back to New York City to try and create a similar Museum that would help the public experience what it was like to be in the front lines with FDNY firefighters and recovery crews at Ground Zero. There were so many aspects to the “Recovery Period” to convey: from the K-9 Recovery Dogs to the sacred “Honor Guard” ceremonies - from below Ground Zero in the dangerous PATH subway tunnels to the endless and tedious 24/7 digging for victims. Peppered throughout the WTC rubble were thousands of artifacts, each one telling a story and of course there was the ‘faces” of Ground Zero: The incredible and unique men and women that went through harsh winter weather conditions and hardship to dig endlessly, day and night to try and bring families some closure.
Ground Zero Museum Workshop brings all these aspects of the “Recovery Period” to life in images, artifacts and through the breathtaking stories behind them, recorded in Dolby Stereo and in 4 languages: English, Italian, Spanish and French. Adding to the stories, our tech crews were able to find rare video from Ground Zero and lift the audio sound effects of that video and use them as background for our recorded audio stories. So, you will be able to hear the K-9 dogs barking, the trucks at Ground Zero, radio transmissions and even the Chaplains saying prayers into their Motorola walkie-talkies during the Honor Guards for our fallen heroes. Quite simply, you won’t find a more realistic and accurate accounting of what it was like inside the World Trade Center site anywhere.
Our goal is to help you experience what it was like to work at Ground Zero and take part in the daily dramas that unfolded. Education promotes healing. Our Museum does not show graphic footage of the airplanes that morning nor anything that would make anyone relive the horrors of September 11. We are in essence, a kid-friendly Museum that has captivated the attention of visitors as young as four-years-old, who listen carefully to all 100 audio stories. We are a gentle segue for young and old alike to come and learn about the inner workings at WTC that took place just after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Showing details of the morning of September 11 has never been our mission. Rather, we show a side to 9/11 that the public and media didn’t have access to - the Recovery - a 9-month period with the goal of locating the missing amidst a 100-foot-deep cavern of dirt, steel, and twisted metal.
In 2013 & 2014 we were very honored to win "Traveler's Choice" Awards from the millions of members of the Trip Advisor review community. Having a 5-star review average from the tourism community is a testament that we have been able to accomplish our educational goals and affect our visitors in a positive way. Furthermore, being included in Trip Advisor's "Top 25 Museums in the USA" list for 2013 & 2014 was indeed an honor. As one of only three New York City Museums to make this coveted list - which included the Frick and the Metropolitan Museum of Art - we were motivated even more as a result to continue our mission to educate the public. This year, in 2015, we are very honored to be included in Trip Advisor’s “Hall of Fame” - a rare award given to a Museum with a 5-Star rating on Trip Advisor for five years straight.
Our Museum is very proud to have raised and donated many tens of thousands of dollars to “give back” to the FDNY and 9/11 families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center. We have donated merchandise for other charities to raffle off, helped sick and disabled 9/11 first responders and supported the FDNY Widows & Children’s Fund. We have even “adopted” certain firefighters with no real way to pay their medical bills and helped them to that effect. While our primary focus is being a Museum for education and healing, we also have made it our business to champion certain causes. I am very proud to present to you the Ground Zero Museum Workshop and help you take the journey that I took into the heart of Ground Zero during the cold Winter of 2001-2. I promise you that our Museum, which breaks the mold of any conventional Museum, will leave you with a greater understanding of the strength of the human spirit when faced with adversity. You will live through our daily successes, our failures, and our emotions that we grappled with each day. You will indeed have a much deeper understanding of September 11 than what you saw on the television. I believe your experience at our tiny Museum will stay with you long after you have left, just as my experience at the Anne Frank House has stayed with me to this day.