UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Stuckeman School at the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture is hosting an exhibition of class work designed by architecture students in remembrance of the 10 Penn State alumni who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The exhibition, part of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, will be on display on the first floor of the Stuckeman Family Building from Sept. 4 to 25, and will also feature work by architecture alumni who have designed memorial structures.
Fifth-year students Jeremy Lynn and Rich Padula, who both graduated in May 2026, were selected by a jury of Stuckeman School architecture and landscape architecture alumni as the two finalists whose work will be displayed in the exhibition.
The idea for the exhibition came as the result of a proposal from the Architecture Alumni Group (AAG) for a permanent memorial on the University Park campus, led by AAG President Carla Bonacci. She was responsible for the overall World Trade Center master plan redevelopment that included the 9/11 Memorial as well as monitoring the design as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s World Trade Center site architect.
The alumni group’s efforts led to a Design Research Studio course that was taught by Assistant Professor Orsolya Gáspár in fall 2025, in which upper-level architecture students were tasked for the course with delivering a preliminary design proposal for a 9/11 memorial on the University Park campus that is dedicated to the memory of the 10 Penn State alumni who died in the World Trade Center. The students developed their designs through the use of material studies, prototyping and visualization in augmented reality.
The design studio featured two esteemed guest contributors: Sabina Tanović, an architect and researcher focused on memorial projects dealing with traumatic pasts, and Eliza Pennypacker, emerita professor of landscape architecture, who was a designer of the winning entry to the Korean War Veterans Memorial design competition.
Lynn and Padula both selected the Hintz Family Alumni Center for their proposed designs for the course.
“What resonated with the jury members was how strong the students’ ideas were in tying the individuals who lost their lives to their backgrounds and who they really were as people both at Penn State and beyond,” said Frank Dittenhafer, a jury member and 1978 alumnus.
In addition to the students’ projects, the exhibition will also feature submissions from alumni who have designed memorials with their firms.
Dittenhafer, a partner at Murphy and Dittenhafer Architects, submitted the plans of five community-based memorials that his firm has designed, all as pro bono projects in York County, Pennsylvania. The five memorials range in scale and scope but all have basic commonalities.
“There are three layers to our design thinking for memorials. First is making sure it reflects a remembrance or looking into the past, which is critical. Second is making the memorial a living place in the present that provides solace and comfort to those who visit. And third is making sure the memorial is forward facing so it educates and provides inspiration,” he said.
He also said his firm’s approach is to think about what the memorial means or the story behind it, who the memorial is for and how people experience it.
“All of the memorials are meant to be strong and engaging while showing respect and dignity to those who lost their lives,” he said.
Robert McNamara, a 1982 alumnus and senior partner at Netta Architects, also contributed a plan for the expansion and re-visioning of an existing 9/11 Memorial, as well as a new memorial plaque dedicated to first responders in Bergen County, New Jersey.