Michael Arad is an architect who moved to New York City from Israel in 1999. At 34, Arad was selected from 5,201 competitors as the winning designer of the World Trade Center Memorial. After a behind-the-scenes war of wills, we now celebrate his vision with a with “Reflecting Absence”, a pair of pools set 30 feet deep in the footprints of the downed towers, with cascading waterfalls surrounded by the names of the dead and a “living park” at ground level meant to symbolize life and rebirth.