New York, New York - The 9/11 Memorial & Museum has curated a beautiful new art collection that pays tribute to two of the most iconic buildings in New York City history.

On Monday, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum hosted a private viewing of their impressive new exhibition titled Towers Rising: Envisioning the World Trade Center Before and After 9/11, which perfectly explores both the beauty and tragedy of the WTC's 50-year history.

At the opening, 9/11 Memorial & Museum trustee Daniel Tishman revealed an incredible full circle moment.

He recalled visiting the original construction site for the Twin Towers in 1963, which his father John Tishman and their family-owned business Tishman Construction was leading the effort to build.

According to AP News, the Twin Towers were designed by Minoru Yamasaki and dedicated on April 4, 1973. At the time, both were the tallest buildings in the world, with the North Tower standing at 1,368 feet tall, and the South Tower 1,362 feet. They were also the largest in the world, taking up 9 million square feet of space with each floor spanning over an acre.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists high jacked two airplanes and crashed them into the Twin Towers, killing over 3,000 people.

While speaking at the 9/11 Museum on Monday, Tishman said watching his father build the towers sparked his initial interest in construction, and he soon took over the family business.

Following the attacks, it took New York City several years to figure out what to do with the remaining ruins. It was eventually decided that a memorial plaza would be built featuring a museum, a new transportation hub, and newly constructed World Trade Center (WTC) towers.

In a surprising twist of fate, Tishman was tapped to rebuild his father's work.

"Never in my or anyone's wildest imagination did we think we would be rebuilding the towers, let alone that I would have the opportunity to be the builder of something my father had built 40 years before," he told Forbes in 2011.

Jan Ramirez, who has served as chief curator for the museum's collection since its inception in 2006, said the Tower's Rising exhibit began with a focus on the 9/11 attack, but it grew into something much bigger over time.

"We discovered that many people who've grown up in the metropolitan region and many people who come to New York as visitors or as tourists also needed to pay their respects to the building," she explained.

The focus then shifted to capture the WTC at different points throughout its history as New Yorkers, visitors, and even those designing it perceived it at that time.

This also meant capturing what it was like to lose the original Twin Towers, and the process of rebuilding. Thus, Towers Rising was designed to chronologically follow that journey.

The pieces within the new collection were created by people that have some sort of connection to the towers or the events of September 11, 2001.

Brenda Bergman was a firefighter and first responder on 9/11 and spent days assisting and digging through the rubble of the fallen buildings.

After retiring in 2006, Ramirez says Bergman carried "a lot of grief" and memories of the destruction she witnessed that day, and in an effort to channel that energy, "her response to destruction was creation."

Bergman began to take art classes, learning stone and lithography work, and submitted her pieces to be included in Towers Rising. She described her works as being heavily influenced by some of her favorite European and Japanese artists.

Every piece in the collection has a fascinating backstory that allows those closest to the WTC to share their experience.

Whether you grew up in the Big Apple or are just visiting to take in all the tourist attractions the city has to offer, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum is undoubtedly a must-see.

Along with Towers Rising, the museum has countless other pieces on display and more WTC-related artifacts such as souvenirs from the original Twin Towers and support beams pulled from the wreckage after the 9/11 attacks.

The Towers Rising exhibition is now open to the public at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in NYC's Financial District until October 2024.