The dispute over the design, which started after the winning entry was announced in 2005, was reignited by Burnett last month, before the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
But even so, plans are quietly taking shape for a grand tribute to honor the 40 men and women who lost their lives in what, many believe, was the first battle in the war on terror.
Since its designation by Congress in 2002, the park in southwestern Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands has been troubled by slow fund-raising, threats to its federal funding, environmental hazards, and difficulty buying the land.
Still, supporters are confident the park will open on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attack.
When done, the memorial will hold a unique place in National Park Service history.
"There has never been a National Park Service area designed through an international competition as an entire unit before," said John Reynolds, chairman of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission and a former regional park service director.
Scarred by decades of coal mining, the landscape has a stark beauty that shifts with the high-altitude weather.
Here the forest was stripped, leaving a barren field and acid ponds of mine waste. The most prominent landmark, a huge rusted drag line, towers over the site.
To Murdoch, a Los Angeles architect whose proposal for the park was selected from more than 1,000 entries, the raw, industrial landscape - disfigured again by the terrorist attack - is integral to the story.
"The violation to the land is part of its history," said Murdoch, while giving a reporter in July the first media tour of the site. "The character of the land is integral to the experience of the memorial park."
Murdoch sees his approach, with its massive use of native trees and plants, as a path toward healing the land and, with it, the spirit of a wounded nation.
