New York was a place I wanted to live and work all along. If I wasn't going to live in Israel, I had to live in New York.

Michael Arad is an Israeli-American architect who is best known for being the designer of the World Trade Center Memorial. World Trade Center designer
Arad was selected from 5201 competitors as the winning designer of the World Trade Center Memorial 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 areas at bedrock level where the public can mourn and family members of the victims can grieve in private a space for 9/11 relics and a "living park" at ground level meant to symbolize life and rebirth. Personal life
Today he lives in the East Village of New York City with his wife Melanie Arad Fitzpatrick and his children Nathaniel and Ariel Arad.

Michael Arad is an Israeli-American architect who is best known for being the designer of the World Trade Center Memorial.