Two Ground Zero memorial designs – a cloud-like canopy filled with light and another with sunken reflecting pools in the footprints – have emerged as the favorites, according to several Web polls yesterday.
A survey on The Post’s Web site the day after the eight final designs were released to the public showed “Reflecting Absence,” by New York Housing Authority architect Michael Arad, as the lead proposal, garnering 26 percent of support from Post readers.
Arad’s design places sunken pools on the footprints of the Twin Towers, with waterfalls viewed from underground passages.
In a virtual tie with that design, with 24 percent, is “Passages of Light: The Memorial Cloud,” by New York-based architects Gisela Baurmann and Jonas Coersmeier and artist Sawad Brooks.
The proposal extends a glassy platform over much of the pit area, which holds up a series of glass tubes that create a cloud-like form suffused with light.
The names of the attack victims are inscribed on lights shining up from the floor beneath the cloud.
More than 1,000 people responded to The Post poll, which is an unscientific sampling of readers’ opinions.
The same two designs also emerged as favorites in two other Internet polls.
In a survey on radio station 1010 WINS’ Web site, which drew more than 1,300 respondents, 17 percent favored “Passages of Light.” Another 16 percent voted for “Reflecting Absence.”
In a poll on the Web site of The New York Times, “Passages of Light” again was the leader, with 33 percent, while “Reflecting Absence” came in second with 18 percent of the favorable responses.
Among the other designs, “Suspending Memory,” with the Twin Tower footprints converted into islands in a pool of water, ran third in both the Post and Times polls.
Several Post readers expressed unhappiness with the choices or the pace of rebuilding.
“None of the new designs fit the situation or are able to ease the emptiness that we as New Yorkers feel,” wrote Christine, of The Bronx.
Steve Anderson wrote, “Once again, the elites are turning the World Trade Center site into a playground for the avant-garde,”
And “Peaceseeker” said: “Just start building already! Or not! How about we debate it for the next 10 years? That will truly destroy the economy of the city.”
But all the Web polling is likely to have little or no effect on the 13-mem- ber jury that must choose a winning design from among the eight finalists.
The members work in secret and have said they want to come to a decision free from outside pressure. A winner is expected to be chosen by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday declined to reveal which plan he liked best.
But he raised the question of “economic issues” surrounding the memorial.
“We also have to figure out how to pay for this,” Bloomberg said, apparently referring to the size and complexity of the proposed memorials – which is likely to make them very costly to build and maintain.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has created a foundation to raise memorial funds.
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TELL US YOUR PICK
The Post wants to know what you think about the designs for the memorial at Ground Zero. Visit our website at http://www.nypost.com to vote on your favorite of the eight designs and write a message about what you like – or don’t like.