From stories of lost family members to personal accounts of survival, visitors to the World Trade Center site will have an opportunity to record their memories of September 11 and the 1993 bombing when StoryCorps, the acclaimed oral history project, opens a recording booth in the WTC PATH station next month, Gov. George Pataki announced Thursday, June 16th, 2005. "We need to make sure the story of loved ones lost is not forgotten," Pataki said at the news conference held at the temporary WTC PATH station. "The StoryCorps booth will also provide an opportunity to visitors, residents, and all those who wish to share their memories and thoughts on September 11." Opening on July 12, the StoryCorps booth is one of two interim memorial projects planned for the site, each sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). The other -- the Tribue Center -- will provide information and a place for reflection until the permanent memorial, "Reflecting Absence," is completed in 2009. It is a project of the nonprofit September 11^th Widows and Victims Families' Association. The center, which will include a gallery, exhibits, and educational programs, will be housed at 120 Liberty Street and is scheduled to open by next March. Ground was broken on the 6,000-square-foot space the day of the governor's announcement. Plans also include walking tours around the World Trade Center site conducted by Tribute Docents beginning in November."These two initiatives will serve as a vital complement to the permanent memorial, "Reflecting Absence," and the Memorial Center, which will tell the individual and collective stories of September 11, 2001," said LMDC President Stefan Pryor. They form "an essential part of the healing process," he continued. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation provided $500,000 in funding to StoryCorps and up to $3 million to the Tribute Center. The LMDC has also sponsored other initiatives focused on remembering those lost on September 11, including the creation of the Family Room at 1 Liberty Plaza. Construction is underway at 120 Liberty Street to create the Tribute Center, a 6,000 square foot interactive, educational center that will house semi-permanent and changing exhibitions. Opening in March 2006, the Center will offer visitors of all ages and backgrounds an interactive and meaningful learning experience in its galleries as well as regularly scheduled programs and docent led tours of the site. What will distinguish Tribute from other September 11th projects is that all of its exhibitions and programs will be created from the personal stories of those individuals most intimately and directly affected by the tragedy – survivors, families and others who lost loved ones, downtown workers and residents, rescue workers, and volunteers. Visitors will meet the people whose stories memorialize this extraordinary time. Other memorials include the Sphere at Battery Park. Perhaps the most emotionally charged piece in Battery Park is the temporary memorial to the events of 9/11. "The Sphere," a sculpture by Fritz Koenig that stood at the World Trade Center as a symbol of world peace, was relocated to Battery Park on March 11, 2002, some six months after the terrorist attacks. An eternal flame was added -- and lit -- on September 11, 2002, "in honor of all those who were lost," says an explanatory plaque. The Sphere, the plaque adds, "endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country." Another memorial is the Living Memorial, an Internet-based portal of reflection. The WTC StoryCorps booth, which the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey provided the space for, will be the second free-standing recording studio opened by StoryCorps. Its first booth opened in New York's Grand Central Terminal in October 2003. At the booth, a trained facilitator will help participants create an interview question list and handle the technical aspects of the recording. At the end of a 40-minute session, they will be given a CD of their interview. With participants' permission, a second copy will be sent to the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress, where it will be preserved for generations to come. With 2,000 stories already collected from the project's first year, StoryCorps is the largest oral history project ever undertaken and will collect more than 250,000 interviews over the next ten years.