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As expected, there are still many questions around the WTC redesign. Developer Larry Silverstein has been critical of Daniel Libeskind's design, with his , but civic groups want Libeskind's design to remain as is, including the Lower Manhattan Development Corp, feeling that revisions will alter the design beyond its original form. The Civic Alliance has drawings of what the revisions would look like.
Newsday has a Q&A with Libeskind about the civic groups trying to keep his design in tact.
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and by end, I bet the Wedge of Light will end up being projected by gigantic flood lamps instead of the sun, due to "unforseen circumstances."
let the hacking begin.
i hate real estate developers- how perverse to you have to be to stick a mall in the middle of ground zero? i mean, what the hell is that about? "the september 11th memorial mall" just does not sound right.
Jake--there was a mall there to begin with! The lower level consisted of access to three NYC subway stations and the PATH station, all connected by an enclosed mall that sat between the twin towers and some of the smaller WTC buildings. It was a good mall--sort of a cross between a suburban pile and an urban neighborhood. I walked through it every morning--I used to get my paper at the newsstand between the PATH and the N/R.
As an example, Lower Manhattan has burned to the ground SEVERAL times since the city was settled in the 1620s. (One of these fires was an attempt by misguided revolutionaries to destroy the city rather than let the British take it, following Washington's retreat up into the Bronx.) New Yorkers didn't wall off the burn zone and declare it a memorial to the dead--in each instance they rebuilt. We should rebuild, too.
Someone should give Larry Silverstein a copy of Any Rand's book, Fountainhead, he may learn something. Jealousy and personal insecurity seem like obvious motives here. Let the design stand as is.
i'm not against a tasteful replacement of the commerce footage in the area- but a giant open mall with mcdonalds and starbucks in space allotted to the memorial is a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. did i mention that it's bad? but to be perfectly honest, i used to hate that old PATH underground mall. it reminded me of those endless hallways in the new paris train stations like chatelet.
(i always got lost in that underground maze. it had terrible signage.) i know it's too late, but can't we build something kick-ass that will actually impact the skyline in a meaningful and majestic way? that spire thing is so weak from afar.
although the symbolic value of a tower is sort of important, I think a lot can be achieved by looking inward more. the thing is, nothing will compare to the mass of the original towers and unless you build another bohemoth, it'll look lame. I say keep the vertical space a void and focus on the ground level. I personally would not mind a lateral solution like some kind of Milanese Galleria. and they should totally avoid any potential underground maze similar to the current disaster we know as Penn Station.
although the symbolic value of a tower is sort of important, I think a lot can be achieved by looking inward more. the thing is, nothing will compare to the mass of the original towers and unless you build another bohemoth, it'll look lame. I say keep the vertical space a void and focus on the ground level. I personally would not mind a lateral solution like some kind of Milanese Galleria. and they should totally avoid any potential underground maze similar to the current disaster we know as Penn Station.
Personally, I like Silverstein's version a lot more. His revision looks like a solid building much more in the tradition of the original towers. If his main building is putin, along with the odd shaped smaller building of Liebskin, and the original footprints are preserved, I think it would be a really great site. I don't like the Liebskin tower at all, very impersonal and too small. I'd choose Silversteins if it were my call.