UVa professor provides shine for Pentagon 9/11 memorial

The polish that University of Virginia professor Rob Kelly helped put on the Pentagon Memorial — opening today in Arlington — should last a hundred years.

And with that Kelly leaves a mark on a memorial built for the people who died when hijackers slammed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

At the memorial site, 184 metal benches — each bearing the name of a victim — are placed along the plane’s flight path under a grove of maples.

The designers — Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman, whose plan for the memorial won out over more than 1,100 others — had planned to use aluminum benches until consulting with Kelly, a materials science professor.

Kaseman and Beckman connected with Kelly after he was recommended by Edgar Starke, former dean of UVa’s engineering school and himself an expert in aluminum alloys.

But while using an aluminum alloy would have made the benches strong, it would diminish their luster and make them susceptible to corrosion, Kelly said.

“It was a classical engineering problem,” he said. “You can’t just say there’s just one thing that matters.”

While considering aesthetics, the team also had to factor in the cost, availability and long-term upkeep of whatever metal was chosen.

Kelly guided the team to a stainless-steel alloy solution that would give the benches the strength they needed and make them less prone to corrosion than the aluminum ones.

The steel alloy would also weather well and require only routine cleaning to keep its chromed look.

And while the steel would cost the project more upfront, it would cost less in the long run in terms of paying to maintain a memorial that is still raising money for its future upkeep, Kelly said.

In the end, the stainless-steel bench markers represent the 59 people on board Flight 77 and the 125 people killed inside the Pentagon.

It also emphasizes the diversity of those who died there.

The benches are arranged by the victims’ ages, so the first one visitors see as they enter is dedicated to Dana Falkenberg, a 3-year-old passenger on Flight 77, and the last to retired Navy Capt. John D. Yamnicky Sr., another passenger who was 71.

“I think that their design is going to set the new standard [for memorial design] much like the Vietnam Memorial did,” Kelly said. “It’s been an honor to work on it, very humbling.”

The project cost $22 million, which has been paid. But officials are still trying to raise another $10 million needed to maintain the property, Kelly said.

“This is hallowed ground,” said James Laychak, whose brother, David Laychak, was killed in the Pentagon attack.

It was not a given that the memorial would be located at the site of the crash. The Pentagon suggested about 10 different options. But family members were adamant that the memorial be built where the plane hit, Laychak said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will speak at a ceremony dedicating the memorial this morning. It opens to the public this evening.

The two-acre park will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Memorials are also being planned at the two other Sept. 11 plane-crash sites.

A plaza in New York City for those killed when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center’s twin towers is scheduled to be completed three years from today.

There is also a memorial planned in the Pennsylva-nia field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers and crewmembers wrested control of the plane from four hijackers.

Investigators speculated that those hijackers planned to crash the plane somewhere in Washington, D.C.

A memorial to the 40 passengers and crewmembers of Flight 93 is scheduled for partial completion by 2011 near the field where it crashed, according to the National Park Service.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.