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Families can view victims' remains at WTC memorial

NEW YORK - Family members of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks will be able to enter a private room in the World Trade Center memorial and look through a window at a chamber storing more than 9,000 unidentified remains, development officials said.

In a "contemplation room" next door, the public will be able to pay respects to an empty, symbolic vessel. Development officials disclosed more information about the design this week as they sought construction bids for the memorial.

The climate-controlled, low-humidity storage chamber for the victims' remains is one of several rooms to be built where the trade center's north tower stood, said Anne Papageorge, who oversees memorial development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

The remains will not be visible from the window said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner's office.

Some family members who follow the trade center rebuilding process said they would have preferred that the victims' remains be entombed in the larger contemplation room.

"Why should the public pay tribute to an empty box?" asked Edie Lutnick, whose brother was killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Papageorge said that the symbolic vessel isn't large enough to hold the 9,100 unidentified remains and that it wasn't possible to keep it climate-controlled. She said the medical examiner's office also needs easier access to the storage chamber in case it has to retrieve remains.

So far, 1,594 of the 2,749 people who died at the trade center have been identified. The medical examiner's office has said more sophisticated DNA testing may allow additional identifications later. The remains are sealed in refrigerated plastic pouches at the chief medical examiner's office, Borakove said.

The viewing room will be available only to family members.

There also are plans within the north tower's footprint for a separate office for the medical examiner, another room where family members can reflect privately and exhibition galleries for the memorial museum.

NEW YORK - The surviving employees of Windows on the World, the 107th-floor restaurant obliterated in the World Trade Center attacks, have something to celebrate after more than four years: a new upscale restaurant, just a walk from ground zero.

Colors, to open today in Greenwich Village, is owned by the workers and offers a menu sprinkled with food from the staff's 22 native nations.

It's long-awaited good news for a group who lost 73 of their friends and co-workers Sept. 11, 2001. Only those who weren't working at the time of the attacks survived.

Many of the survivors have since been unemployed, struggling with odd jobs.

"After 9/11, the only thing that keeps us going is belief in each other," said Fekkak Mamdouh, 45, a former Windows waiter.

The grieving workers considered making their restaurant a sort of tribute to 9/11. But a survey they commissioned concluded that customers did not want be reminded of terror.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 01:19:08]