As colorful, surrealist paintings in frames of different sizes adorn the wall of an art gallery on the 69th floor of 3 World Trade Center, Hope Buzzelli keeps alive a space where it all started.
Born in the shadow of 9/11, Hope, now almost 25, grew up amid an atmosphere of resilience, gratitude and — as her name describes it — hope.
Her dad, Pasquale Buzzelli, was going to work on what seemed like a normal day at his office on the 64th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A Port Authority engineer, Pasquale headed down the stairs when the 110-story building collapsed around him, just as he reached the 22nd floor.
“I tried not to think the worst, but when I actually watched the building come down [on TV], I knew there was no way he made it out,” Pasquale’s wife, Louise Buzzelli, said.
Amid dust, ash and rubble, firefighters carried Pasquale to an ambulance after he survived the moment his family had feared most. The first thing he did when he got out, he recalled, was try to contact his wife.
“I said, ‘I need a phone. I gotta call my wife,’” Pasquale remembers. “I dialed the number, and my wife answered.”
Back at home, his family and friends, who had been somber as they waited for him, screamed when he got out of the car late that night.
“Do I think it’s a miracle? Absolutely,” Buzzelli said.
Although Pasquale and Mike Lyons, the friend who helped save him, made it out, the catastrophic environment took a toll years later. Lyons died from lung cancer linked to 9/11 dust exposure.
To cope with what had happened, Pasquale and Buzzelli wrote a book titled “We All Fall Down,” sharing their experiences from the moment that changed their lives. Since she was a child, Hope showed her artistic ability when she drafted the book’s cover, featuring the Twin Towers.
“I knew there were two buildings that were identical, and one of them had an antenna, which was the one my dad was in,” Hope told NBC New York when she was 9.
More than two decades after the tragedy they lived through, art has become a symbol of resilience for the Buzzelli family, as sisters Mia and Hope learned to embody their emotions through creativity.
While Mia is an aspiring artist, Hope has established herself with a distinctive style using ballpoint pen and colored pencil. With experience in art restoration, she’s had more than a dozen exhibitions throughout the city.
Her art captivates audiences with vivid paintings that portray dreamlike aquatic worlds, and holds special meaning for her parents and colleagues.
“I think of her as if she was Dali’s rival,” said gallery owner Parker Calvert. “She’s got this great surreal moment in her work—her imagination is out of this world.”
Hope’s art rests in an area that once marked tragedy, with a view of the spot where her dad survived.
“It’s similar to the feeling when you walk into a very spiritual place,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be here tomorrow, but today I want to do everything I can to live — there’s so much, there are so many more beautiful moments. I’m just so happy to be here.”
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