911memorials.org

The New York Times has an article on historical remnants still at Ground Zero and whether they will be preserved.

For instance, just outside the PATH station concourse, an evocative vestige of the trade center shopping mall has been exposed. An irregular section of travertine floor, with courses of contrasting dark bands in angular patterns, seems to correspond roughly with an area once known as the crossroads, around which were the Warner Brothers, Casual Corner, Strawberry and Tourneau stores.
More prominent is the badly battered stairway that rises from the south side of Vesey Street and once led to Austin J. Tobin Plaza, which was higher than the surrounding sidewalks. In some quarters, this is called the “survivors’ stairway,” since it was used by many people to escape from the burning towers.
The World Trade Center Survivors’ Network is among the groups calling for the preservation of the stairway, which its newsletter describes as a place “from which survivors, and everyone whose life was profoundly changed that day, could gain a vantage point from which to contemplate the footprint voids, paying respect to their lost friends, colleagues and loved ones.”

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An article in rismedia notes that the 2,624 Burj Dubai Tower is to open in 2008. The 1,776 Foot Freedom Tower is scheduled for 2009. Both towers are being designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Official Site

Pictures of Tower at Emporis

A review of the three latest books in the San Francisco Chronicle has the following statement:

But for all the visual snap that makes “Imagining Ground Zero” riveting - - blobs and curves abound — nothing jumps from the pages as the fitting response to the tragedy of Sept. 11, the path not taken that would have led us all to a better place. At times you sense something far different: the architectural equivalent of ambulance chasing. More politely, “a beauty contest, in which each of them (architects) paraded their favorite shapes before an eager public,” to quote Goldberger’s take on the Protech show. In other words, architects were as conflicted about what to do in the aftermath of Sept. 11 as all of us. And if no architect fully rose to the occasion, neither have we.

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A Toronto Globe review of Daniel Review of Libeskind “Breaking Ground” Book Calls It Self Serving’s book about Ground Zero entitled “Breaking Ground” calls the book ill advised and self-serving. Here’s a quote from the review:

Libeskind, I believe, is not to be blamed for his sufferings, which are described in detail here. In a way extreme even in George W. Bush’s self-absorbed America, the discussion of rebuilding Ground Zero has become an occasion for a great deal of acting out by all and sundry. It’s hardly surprising that Libeskind, having weighed in with a bold plan, would get sucked down into the Ground Zero maelstrom of egos, needs and ambitions.
What is surprising is Libeskind’s apparent belief that he could win our hearts with a chronicle riddled with self-serving sentimentality about himself and his supporters, and with the shallow, resentful caricature of his enemies and rivals.

This letter appeared in The New York Times (and was also posted to our news forum).

To the Editor:

The random placement of victims’ names in the 9/11 memorial will prevent some victims from being remembered (news article, Dec. 17).

You see, as time goes on, my son and I are having trouble remembering the names of the guys my husband, John Casazza, worked with at Cantor Fitzgerald. Then there are those victims we have come to know through friendships we have formed with their family members.

How will we ever find so many of the people we knew through a directory at the memorial site? They all died such horrific deaths, causing most to be denied a proper burial. Are we now going to deny them due deference and prayers at the memorial as well?

We feel so bad about so much: that they are no longer with us and the nature of their deaths. All we want is to be able to trace their names with our fingertips, remember them and say some prayers. And we would like to be able to do so with some measure of ease, dignity and, yes, privacy.

Can we please just list the victims’ names by building or plane, and then by company, agency, department or location? After all, the placement of victims’ names on the memorial should not be about recalling the randomness of the crime or a display of hierarchy; it should be about remembering those who were lost.

Patricia Casazza
Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
Dec. 17, 2004

The New York Sun reports that developers are objecting to the three-story mound to built to accommodate truck ramps on the south side of the memorial because it will destroy sight lines for their buildings. The two buildings, which are in the process of being made habitable, are the only surviving buildings at the World Trade Center site: a 23-floor luxury high-rise at 90 West St., and a 135,000-square-foot structure at 130 Cedar St. “Anything that blocks access or visibility to retail severely impacts its value, rendering it pretty much valueless,” a managing director at CB Richard Ellis, Alan Schmerzler, said. “It would be a very tough sale to put retailers in these buildings, even with the foot traffic from the World Trade Center.” While developers at 130 Cedar are still at the initial stages of construction, the rental building at 90 West is nearly completed.

The NY Post article on the final design notes that it was Bloomberg’s personal favorite.

Bloomberg praised the design, which he said was his favorite from among the thousands of ideas put forward. “We have to have a memorial that really allows us to connect the sheer enormity of the Twin Towers to the individuals that were taken from us,” Bloomberg said. “We really need to make these physical and personal and spiritual connections.”

The New York Times reports that the new St. Nicholas Orthodox Church will moved from the west to the east of the proposed Liberty Park at the south side of Ground Zero.

Even more dramatically is that the park may be 25-30 feet above street level to accomodate ramps going into the complex. LMDC President Kevin Rampe is quoted as saying, the corporation would work with the Port Authority to ensure that the park design is “fitting and appropriate,” adding that he could even imagine an inventive designer exploiting the unusual topography in a creative way.

We’re not crazy enough to think that this site has any impact whatsoever on the developments. Anybody who can read a map would say that these should be some of the fundamentals of the design. However, the Liebeskind master design prohibited common sense. None the less as the design has evolved it has come to the same conclusions we had in our 2003 entry:

1. The memorial should be at street level (memorial guidelines called for it to be buried 30 feet below grade)
2. The museum should be onsite below the memorial.
3. The memorial should not have buildings overhanging the footprints (the contest said buildings had to overhang it)

The design is now creeping up on two other areas:
1. It should take the entire obvious block (all the Liebeskind mandated buildings have been removed from the site with the exception of the Performing Arts Center at the northeast corner). This building should also be removed. That would clear the way for the memorial to have a park setting.
2. Incorporation of historical details in their original location. Since the move for the memorial occurred without any time for reflection the initial philosophy was to remove any visible reminder of the events. Time has softened that and now the footings and slurry wall will play important rolls.

We still think that a once in a millenium opportunity has been lost by obliterating all above ground remnants of the World Trade Center and reducing what was once two of the world’s tallest and mightiest buildings to just a couple holes in the ground with fancy landscapping. We stll think this trivializes the heroism, all that was lost and all that has been set in motion.

But we live a real world. Millions of dollars have been spent so far and victims relatives are seeking closure in having the remains of their loved ones laid to rest. There’s going to be no turning back.

So at the very least, the World Trade Center Memorial deserves at least its own city block and not have to share it with the Peforming Arts Center.

The New York Times article on the final design notes that the waterfalls are to be tested in a mockup to be built in Toronto to test them in icy conditions. The pools are to be slightly smaller than the building footprints and 40 feet below the surface nearly at bedrock.

The New York Times in an article by David Dunlap notes on the unveiling of the final design notes that some historical remnants of the building will in fact be displayed — the 70 foot tall 250 foot long slurry wall that kept out the Hudson and many of the steel and concrete footings that fom the perimeter of the north tower. The site will also have 300 oak trees and a civic gathering area to accomodate 10,000 people. Visitors will be able to touch the footings of the towers.

In the picture above from the NY Times site you will note that the Performing Arts Center (depicted as the clear glass square) definitely interferes with the space. Click to see a bigger screenshot.

An AP article by Karen Matthews in Newsday on the final plan for the World Trade Center memorial notes that the completion date is to be 2009.

The article also quoted Gov. Pataki saying that voids were the way to honor the WTC.

Pataki said, “Where the towers stood will be voids that help to let us appreciate the magnitude of what we lost on that day. When we descend down below ground, families on each Sept. 11 will still be able to bend over and touch the bedrock as they have each Sept. 11, and that is so important.”

The article also notes a new addition to the previously announced plans: a Memorial Hall between the twin reflecting pools that will mark the footprints of the lost towers.

The ultimate perk for recording your name history in New York City is to have your moniker on the tallest building in the world as governor.

Franklin Roosevelt has his name prominently on the Empire State Building.

Gov. George Pataki in his great haste to support the construction of the world’s tallest building has found himself with his name on the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower which will always be an asterik in its title as world’s tallest since it is to be only 70 stories tall with a lot of fancy stuff on top.

Pataki’s emphasis should have been on a memorial that would evoke the power and emotions for millineums to come. It’s hard to image that a hole in the ground will evoke such emotions in even a few years hence.

Among Pataki’s sins at Ground Zero include overriding design competition to appoint Daniel Liebeskind, an artist with a fringe reputation, to come up with the disasterous site plan that obliterated and hid Ground Zero.

His other sin was to come up with the quasi-government agency — the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — which has no clear government or public oversight — to oversee the construction of new buildings (even though the buildings technically should have been built and designed by the private leaseholder) as well as conduct the contest for a memorial even though not enough time had cleared to allow a suitable memorial with proper perspective.

Gov. Pataki is perhaps well meaning. He wanted to take advantage of billions of dollars for new construction when it was available. He wanted to bring business to downtown which was well on its way to no longer being a desirable location for business even before 9/11. He felt pressure to place the remains of WTC victims into a permanent rest.

911 made Pataki a national figure. He brought the 2004 Republican Convention to New York for the first time. There’s talk that he might make a run for President in 2008. But this isn’t going to happen.

Gov. Pataki’s short sightedness will in effect ruin Downtown. Having a world class monument that lasts for Millineums at its center would always ensure the health of downtown.

The only successful memorial in the United States in the last 30 years is Maya Lin’s Vietnam memorial. It perfectly captures the ambigious emotions associated with the first war the U.S. lost outright.

Maya’s low-impact, feminine style that honored the individual loss over the group gain is the antithesis of the the masculine memorial style that has dominated the world for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, her success has spawned poor imitations where low impact style is not necessarily appropriate for the circumstances surrounding other memorials. The most notable failures of the imitators include the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial , the Pentagon 911 Memorial and even the World War II Memorial.

As a result of this culture of naming names, the debate on construction of a memorial at Ground Zero has been sidetracked over the undignified debate over placement of those names — much as office workers fight over office space.

But one of the biggest mistakes of the design process was placing Maya on the jury deciding the Ground Zero winner.

The pre-eminent memorial designer of our time should have been allowed to submit her own entry to be judged independently.

However, with such a powerful personality on the jury, by all accounts she hijacked the decision process and the jury finalists were all variations of her style. Maya was reported to have periodically burst into tears during the debates. In the end the jury basically threw out all the designs submitted and “made their own.”

We have wound up with the Memorial that Maya basically proposed (published in the New York Times Magazine) before the contest even began. Michael Arad was trouted out as the winner but the jury forced him into collaboration with landscaper Peter Walker to hide a bad design with landscaping.

Who knows what memorial design would have emerged had Maya not been on the jury?