Edwin Zawadski and Mason Wickham
In Situ Design
Brooklyn, New York

In the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11, much thought has gone into the best way to pay tribute to the memory of those who lost their lives that day. There is currently a competition for the Pentagon Memorial that has been narrowed down to six finalists. The design firm In Situ Design, co-founded by Edwin Zawadski and Mason Wickham, was one of the six finalists.

When asked about the inspiration for his Memorial design, Edwin replied, "It didn't come like a thunderbolt. It evolved from a completely different idea, which was more of a building. We kept looking at it and saying this is too much architecture. What are the elements that really matter here? And we kept boiling it down, while also keeping in mind a mandate from the families to not only remember the dead, but at another level to evoke the responsibilities of citizenship and duty in our democracy. Eventually, we created a room which houses this legendary table, which operates on both an incredibly literal level and a very subtle one simultaneously. The table is the center of domestic life, as well as cultural and institutional (including military) structures - round tables, boardrooms, conferences etc. On the personal side, it is very clear that those who died will never again be seated at, let's say, Thanksgiving supper. On the collective level, the visitor is called upon to sit in for those who died and to interact, think, debate, participate - to be better citizens - in their honor."

Edwin and Mason have used VectorWorks since 1997, having previously worked in AutoCAD offices. Edwin went on to explain what they like about VectorWorks and how it contributed to their design process;"What I love most about VectorWorks is that you can draw in it without becoming obsessive about how you use the program or the meaningless accuracy that CAD confers on the design process. Architecture is not about the umpteenth decimal of dimensional accuracy, but CAD by its nature usually forces one to think in thousandths of an inch, which is ridiculous. In VectorWorks we can produce the graphic we are after and pay minimal attention to what is going on under the hood, so to speak. (The very fact that there is a nudge tool speaks for itself.)"

"The other aspect which I love is how easy it is to integrate graphic elements. Aside from drafting and 3D work, we also lay out our final boards in VW by importing images as needed. In fact, our winning board for the first stage of the Pentagon competition consists of a 3D model of the space rendered in RenderWorks with the orthographic drawings, text, and "Photoshopped" images all layered on top, so it was plotted entirely from within VW."

Edwin also explained that the biggest challenge outside of the competition itself is to create the designs in the time left after earning a living and being a parent to a baby girl.

To learn more about the Pentagon Memorial competition, visit http://memorialcompetition.pentagon.mil To see more of In Situ Design's work, visit www.insitudesign.com

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