BY YANNIC RACK | New York State is funding the construction of a permanent memorial to the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, clearing a major hurdle in a years-long fight to erect a fitting monument to one of the deadliest industrial tragedies in the country’s history.
A group of labor advocates and descendants of the victims started the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition a few years ago to find a design for the memorial and raise the money needed to construct and maintain it — roughly $2.4 million over all.
This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state government would provide the $1.5 million needed to build the memorial.
“I’m feeling like I’m on top of the world,” said Joel Sosinsky, a retired city attorney who serves as the coalition’s secretary. “There are tears in all of our eyes, basically,” he added.
Suzanne Pred Bass’s great-aunt Rose Weiner perished in the fire.
“This is both so exciting and moving beyond words, to have this windfall that really enables what we’ve been dreaming about and hoping for across the generations,” she said of the news.
Most of the 146 people who died were women and most were recent immigrant Jews — about two-thirds of them — and Italians.
The memorial will be attached to the building where the fire occurred on Washington Place, just off Washington Square Park.
More than just remembering the victims who perished in the fire, the coalition also sees an important role for the memorial in educating New Yorkers and visitors alike about the political and social activism — and eventually far-reaching labor reforms — that followed the disaster.
“The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire galvanized the labor movement in America and should never be forgotten,” Cuomo said in a statement announcing the grant.
“New York State has always been a beacon for progressive government policies, and while we honor the victims’ legacy with this memorial, we must continue to improve workplace protections to ensure tragedies like this one are never repeated.”
The design for the memorial, by Richard Joon Yoo, an architectural designer, and Uri Wegman, an architecture professor at The Cooper Union, envisions three sets of polished steel panels incorporated into the building’s facade.
One panel, installed at pedestrian-hip level, would tell the story of the fire and also reflect the names of the victims, which would be etched into a second panel installed roughly 17 feet above the sidewalk.
A third panel, running vertically up the building’s southeastern corner up to the eighth floor, is intended to refl ect the sky and attract curious passersby from afar.
The building, at 29 Washington Place, is owned by New York University, which uses it as science laboratories. The school has been working with the coalition for the past few years and supports the memorial.
“We’re very pleased to hear the great news about Governor Cuomo’s support of the project, and glad about what this means for the coalition’s efforts,” John Beckman, the university’s spokesman, said.
Before the tribute can be built, however, there are a few more challenges to be overcome. For one, the proposal will need to be approved by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, since the building is landmarked.
But the coalition has also committed to raising around $1 million more to endow the memorial for maintenance and insurance, in a deal made with N.Y.U., according to Sosinsky.
“We need to come up with another million dollars, which is no small sum,” Pred Bass said.
She also mentioned Local Law 11 (the Department of Buildings’ Facade Inspection Safety Program, or FISP), which requires periodic facade inspections in the city for buildings over six stories high — which could hamper the start of the construction.
“We obviously still have a long way ahead of us,” Sosinsky said, adding that he nevertheless hopes the memorial could be in place by 2017.
Pred Bass said for her — and surely many other family members of the fi re’s victims — the funding felt like a very personal victory.
“This is so moving to me because it gives recognition,” she said. “It’s a kind of redemption for the suffering that my family endured.
“We’ve been working for years on this, it’s incredible that it’s finally happened.”
