Based in northern New Jersey, Michael Fratacci Sr. guided Ramco Electrical Contracting Corp for more than 15 years. Michael Fratacci Sr.’s accomplishments with this company included controls and wiring installation at high-profile venues such as Barclay Center in Brooklyn and the 9/11 Memorial Museum in the vicinity of One World Trade Center.
As explored in a Wired magazine article, the latter museum posed a major design challenge, as it houses thousands of exhibits and could easily overwhelm visitors and trigger traumatic memories for victims.
A solution was to make the actual space central to the design, with visitors descending along a lengthy, gradually sloping ramp until they reach a large underground balcony that has a view over the museum floor, another 40 feet down. The nearly empty space has the Last Column at its center, which is the final section of steel that was taken from Ground Zero as the cleanup reached completion. An impressive 40 feet high, and with a weight of 60 tons, the steel is covered with spray-painted messages and tributes to victims by those who undertook the cleanup work.
Large artifacts dominate the rest of the space, including a 5-ton piece of steel that hangs above visitors as they descend, and stands vertically on the side of a silver cube marking the outline of the space once occupied by the North Tower. It is through this use of space and size that visitors gain a visceral impression of the sheer scale of what occurred on 9/11.
As explored in a Wired magazine article, the latter museum posed a major design challenge, as it houses thousands of exhibits and could easily overwhelm visitors and trigger traumatic memories for victims.
A solution was to make the actual space central to the design, with visitors descending along a lengthy, gradually sloping ramp until they reach a large underground balcony that has a view over the museum floor, another 40 feet down. The nearly empty space has the Last Column at its center, which is the final section of steel that was taken from Ground Zero as the cleanup reached completion. An impressive 40 feet high, and with a weight of 60 tons, the steel is covered with spray-painted messages and tributes to victims by those who undertook the cleanup work.
Large artifacts dominate the rest of the space, including a 5-ton piece of steel that hangs above visitors as they descend, and stands vertically on the side of a silver cube marking the outline of the space once occupied by the North Tower. It is through this use of space and size that visitors gain a visceral impression of the sheer scale of what occurred on 9/11.
