In the cozy pink travertine womb of Trump Tower, Donald Trump has put the model of his dream buildings for the World Trade Center - essentially replicas of the old WTC - for the public to see. Yesterday, the real estate tycoon and casino tyfool took some time in a press conference that was conveniently the day before the season finale of The Apprentice to call Freedom Tower a piece of "crap architecture," and offered up Harry Belton and Ken Gardner's design as the best alternative. Of course, Trump can't actually build at Ground Zero, as the rights belong to his "good friend" Larry Silverstein, so his words can be taken as one part person hates the building, fifty parts showman, and zero part of the actual process. Gothamist appreciated this quote from Thomas Roger, who heads up a victims' family organization and whose daughter died as a flight attendant on September 11, to the NY Times: "If he has such grand ideas and imaginative thoughts, where was he three years ago when the master planning was going on?" Exactly.
The Apprentice season finale is live at NYU tonight. And Gothamist used to want Tana to win The Apprentice, but she was so foolish last week that we will end up watching Tivo'd Lost from last night.
Photograph from Dead Programmer
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Why not build the Jets stadium at Ground Zero and solve two problems? Perhaps Al Sharpton could front this idea.
Love the picture of the fattie. Great work!
I used to agree with the idea that we should rebuild the Twin Towers, but seeing this picture made me change my mind. First of all, I'm reminded of just how ugly the buildings were (not that the Freedom Tower isn't also ugly, but it's *new* ugly. The WTC is old-style ugly), and it's also painful to look at. Looking at the Towers reminds me of the attack.
My suggestion -- a modified version of the Twin Towers that looks just enough like them to evoke their memory, but just different enough so that it doesn't look like a grey version of those blocks of 108 slices of cheese.
Everyone in nyc wants to see the grand Gaudi designed building go up at the WTC site. The twin tower models are just a promotional piece for don trumps tv funhouse.
Wait...I don't get it. Is this picture literal or some artsy arrangement? Is fattie supposed to symbolize Trump's massive ego, hungrily eyeing the publicity he gets for crashing into the WTC controversy like Godzilla? Every time he spews phrases like the current design is "inappropriate for freedom" and if we build the planned design "the terrorist will have won" does fattie grow? Fattie must have exploded when Trump—in an amazing coincidence—revealed the WTC plan the day of the season finale of his show.
Even though Trump's design pretty much looks like the destroyed WTC on the outside, I bet inside the design consists of an appropriate and dignified mix of gold-plated trim, pink marble, purple velvet, and champagne waterfalls cascading down the bosom of a giant statue of a Greek milkmaid that looks a lot like Melania. Cheers Donald, you classy bastard!
OK, Bob, I'll bite...
What the hell is the Gaudi design and where can it be found? I'm not sure "everyone" in NYC wants it there, since I'm in NYC and I'm not advocating for it, but I'm willing to give it a fly if I can see it.
OK, I just googled the Gaudi site and OMFG are you kidding me? Please tell me this is just some pointed, punchy irony that we bloggophiles are noted for! The last thing we need at GZ is some cold, overindustrial, militaristic design that looks like Fritz Lang on crack.
The THINK design was better, but putting the towers back would be best of all. It shows you just how small and unheroic our business and public leaders are (Silverstein, Pataki, et al) that the best ideas coming out of this city are coming from horse's asses like Donald Trump and Jim Dolan.
Here Tim. This is the design everyone is clamouring for.
http://www.sinehead.com/Gaudi1.html
Gaudi is the opposite of cold, overindustrial, and militaristic.
I like this idea.
Is that guy there for the pie eating contest?
cold? industrial? militaristic? don't know what you were looking at, but it ain't gaudi. Are these phrases that you just throw out in a kneejerk fashion to anything that you disagree with on a visceral level regardless of whether they make sense. I can understand why you agree with don trump on this.
Checked you link, just to make sure. Yup, that's the one. God, what a mess.
Look, it's just MHO, but I don't see anything attactive in this model rocket ship. I can't imagine having to look at this thing everyday.
As for Trump, hey, a broken clock is right twice a day.
Right now we have, to quote David Schuster, a "skyline designed by al Qaida." Again, it's only MHO, but if you want to make a statement that says "f-you" to the terrorist punks, then put back what was there.
I like your passion and advocacy, Bob, but sorry, this is one native NYCer who's not clamoring.
Somehow I'm more comfortable having Cookie Guggleman agree with me than don trump. I don't think the point of constructing a new building is to say "f-you to the terrorists" but rather constructing a space that people will enjoy. in addition to Cookie Guggleman, Jen Chung also is 100% behind the gaudi designed building as well.
I think the Gaudi plan looks like a bunch of dildos made of clay. Anyone else?
Whatever. Like I said, just OM'sO. I can understand why you're more comfortable with Cookie and Jen than Mr. Happy Hair.
Nathan - I didn't see the dildos, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.
Give the Gaudi design a rest, already. It's almost as hideous as Frank Gehry's creations. Just look at how badly it meshes with existing Lower Manhattan architecture.
http://www.sinehead.com/Gaudi2.html
Besides, building anything like that would be building only the exterior as Gaudi planned it. No way in hell the interior is commercial feasible. He wanted a 400 foot diameter lobby with a ceiling 150 feet tall, and that wasn't the tallest space by a long shot. With the massive open spaces inside, you're talking about building a huge, empty shell. Nobody's going to spend that kind of money for that little rentable floor space.
tim n., you want to live with a building that says 'f* you punk' for the next 100 years? well, maybe you should reconsider gaudi's giant dildos.
hijiki... what says "New York" more? :>) :>)
Maybe "f* you" isn't quite right. How 'bout, to quote Sondheim, "I'm still here"...
captain midnight: yeah, the interiors would need a lot of adjusting obviously, but his ideas of exhibition halls and a large theater at the top would still be feasible although not in the size he imagined. With respect to the photo in your link obviously it was not planned as being white, but I imagine a dark brown, which would make it less likely to stick out as it does there.
The gaudi design looks far too much like londons swiss re building. New Yorks buildings often reflect the citys practical hard working people.
The twin towers should be modified buch built.
To look down broadway again and see them...
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503111045.asp
READ
i don't think you can really compare modern architecture with buildings like the capitol or white house. they would be rebuilt because they are classical, they highlight fine craftsmanship and they use proven languages that are relatively timeless. with modern architecture, the emphasis is on design that uses prefab techniques, contemporary materials, and the latest technology. to rebuild something that was designed around limitations of another time is not the same as preserving classicism. if the lipstick building or the citicorp tower were destroyed, would you rebuild them by the same design? doesn't it go against what modernism is all about.
Thanks, Bob. Just goes to show you, I'm usually loath to crack the cover of Nat'l Review. Today's lesson learned. Great article. Said it all.
My only hope is we haven't had a great idea crapped on by Captain Bad Hair and the Dumb Gavones.
Gaudi's design doesn't look like a bunch of giant dildos. They look like a bunch of giant vibrators - huge difference.
I agree that the towers need not be rebuilt in an attempt to preserve their architecture, however, it is NOT the architecture of the towers that needs to be preserved. What DOES require preservation are the iconic properties that the towers possesed.
The twin towers were much more than an arrangement of concrete & glass & steel. Their value also went far beyond the revolutionary engineering concepts that made them different from any other building of that era.
The twin towers value, upon completion, vastly exceeded that of the sum of all of their components. They were a statement, a testimonial of sorts, to the world. They were, at once, a symbol of free enterprise, the strenght of a nation, prospeity, and the will of a people to maintain and preserve a leadership role in the world community. It is for these reasons they were targeted.
In my opinion, the current Freedom Tower plan serves only one purpose, and that is to fill the void that remains in lower Manhattan. It will NEVER aquire the iconic status of the original towers.
There are very few structures in place that have worldwide recognition, but the twin towers were one of them. The Whitehouse, Buckingham Palace, The Vatican, the Louvre. If any of these were lost, for any reason, I believe they would be rebuilt to their original designs, and I believe the same should be for the twin towers.
If the current Freedom Tower plan is ultimately completed, the terrorists will have won. We will be percieved as weak and cowardly and most certainly loose respect, if not of the terrorist community or the balance of the world community, then of ourseleves.
We need to reclaim what was taken from us and show the world that we remain the strong, courageous, world leader that we profess to be.
We have all become familiar with the concept of not negotiating with terrorists. I say, building anything other than the original design is tantamount to negotiating. The Freedom Tower concept, for me, implies we are building something that the terrorists will have no desire to attack, and they will certainly claim that as a victory, as they should.
We should NOT provide them with victories.
We should NOT cower in defeat.
We should restore what has been taken from us, in the name of every soul lost on that fateful day, and it should serve as a clear and unmistakable reminder, to anyone who contemplates inflicting harm on our people, of our conviction that WE SHALL NOT BE DEFEATED!
REBUILD THEM AS THEY WERE!!!!!!!!!
Al Foglietta
Like others, I too see a 'super variety pak' of dildos in the Gaudi design. The eventual design should not look like the Doc Johnson corporate headquaters. I like the design, don't get me wrong, and would love to see it built. Just not at the WTC site. Rebuilding the towers is the bravest and most powerful statement that could be made.