This article is adapted from the material found in international media concerning the selected substitute proposal designs for the World Trade Center towers in New York.
On the afternoon of 11 September 2001, then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani set up the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) with the aim of rebuilding the fallen towers. Larry Silverstein — the towers' lessee — promised, in tears, that he would carry out his mission as quickly as possible. Legal disputes and feverish efforts to obtain insurance compensation (the only private-sector source of funds for rebuilding) began at once. The New York City Council held repeated public meetings at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center to gauge public opinion.
The truth is that some New Yorkers were not at ease with the towers thirty-three years ago either: for the dense, sun-starved Manhattan of tall buildings, not building 110-storey towers seemed better than building them. In Manhattan, where Central Park and a few squares and "pocket parks" are perhaps the only places where one can see the sky, two such towers cast long shadows, blocked the wind and, in their narrow, dark plazas, attracted no one. Yet for many — when the towers fell — the symbol of national authority was wounded, and they had to be rebuilt taller than ever, indeed taller than any.
The problem at Ground Zero is precisely that it has innumerable custodians — like a much-recommended patient in hospital, where successive recommendations only make the case more critical. One thing is certain: nothing will be built where the two fallen towers stood, and that area will be reserved as a memorial to those who lost their lives.
A week after September 11, Max Protetch, Aaron Betsky and the editors of Architectural Record and Architecture Magazine invited forty leading architects and artists to put forward designs for rebuilding. Among the schemes that drew most attention were Steven Holl's design and the "Tribute in Light" — projected light beams — which was carried out in the months that followed. In the summer of 1381 (Mordad/August 2002) six initial schemes were put forward, and both the public and the LMDC voiced sharp dissatisfaction with them. After this unsuccessful experience, on 27 Azar 1381 (18 December 2002) nine new schemes were exhibited. The competition, which ran for months, drew many world-renowned architects and was for a long time at the centre of intense press coverage. Its goal was to arrive at fresh approaches to the design and construction of high-rise towers and to make Lower Manhattan safer.
In mid-Bahman (early February 2003), the jury chose two schemes from among the 247 proposals submitted by 41 entered groups for the final selection: the proposal by Studio Daniel Libeskind, and the proposal by the THINK Team led by Rafael Vinoly, Shigeru Ban and Frederic Schwartz. The LMDC held meetings with both groups to introduce the modifications it sought. Structural studies, for example, showed that Libeskind's sunken garden could not be 23 metres deep — the retaining walls, given the New York climate, would lack adequate strength and would create hazardous conditions. In the revised scheme its depth was reduced to 9 metres, and underground parking and shopping spaces filled out the difference.
On 8 Esfand 1381 (27 February 2003), in spite of its own experts having recommended the second scheme for first place, the LMDC announced Libeskind's office as the winner of the competition. It seems that on the very last day, the Port Authority and senior LMDC officials concluded that Libeskind's architecture provided the more appropriate urban space — clearly there were behind-the-scenes pressures bearing on this change. Larry Silverstein, who had chosen the SOM team to design the new towers, threatened to veto both the first- and second-place schemes, adding new knots to the tangle. Perhaps now the Port Authority officials reproach themselves for not inserting into the lease an "in case the towers fall the lease may be terminated" clause.
The Libeskind scheme
Libeskind expresses his feelings about his scheme thus: "I was a young immigrant who arrived in the new world by ship. Like millions of others before me, the first sight that struck me was the Statue of Liberty and the spectacular Manhattan skyline — and that image, that ideal, of America, was ever in my mind. I have never forgotten that picture and the ideal it embodied. My scheme is that very picture."
"When I first started work on the project, the people of New York were divided into two groups: those who wished, in honour of the dead, that the WTC site should be left empty, and others who pleaded for the rebuilding of the towers. The horrific death of human beings on this site, and at the same moment the hope for a future, were two distinct moments which could not be reconciled. I tried to find a way for these two seemingly contradictory views to come together unexpectedly. I went to the empty site, stood there and watched the people. I listened to its forces and to its voice, and this is what I heard, what I felt, what I built."
A tower in Libeskind's master plan rises to 1,776 feet, in reference to the year of the Declaration of American Independence — the architect claims it will be the tallest structure ever made by human hands. This tower stands beside a sunken memorial garden. In this space the precise locations of the Twin Towers before their destruction will be shown, along with a section of the slurry-wall foundation that once stood on the bedrock and that now serves as a place of consolation for those who lost loved ones in the disaster. Libeskind's approach — proposing tall towers beside a sunken urban space, and devoting a great area of the former site to the memorial — may be a fitting answer to the conflicting opinions about what to do with the 65,000 square metres of land in one of the most valuable parts of Manhattan.
Other public spaces of the scheme are: the Park of Heroes and the Wedge of Light — a plaza which, by calculation, between 8.46 a.m. and 10.28 a.m. on every September 11 (the time of the first plane's impact and the collapse of the second tower) will be in full sunlight, "without shadow, in perpetual tribute to altruism and courage". A narrative museum, together with a wide variety of programmes — hotels, urban subway, an underground mall, a performing-arts centre, office towers, street-level shops and restaurants — is arranged as a high-level promenade around the sunken garden. Libeskind's master plan provides 930,000 square metres of office space (almost equal to the office floor area of the fallen towers) and 82,000 square metres of retail space.
The THINK Team scheme
Because the budget was uncertain, the THINK Team initially put forward three separate schemes that differed in cost; in the end, they chose to advance the "World Cultural Center" scheme.
The Towers of Culture (World Cultural Center) — proposed phased programme:
- Phase 1: Two metal lattice structures (in the place of the former towers); two 55-storey office buildings; two surface-level memorial spaces and two memorial spaces in the air.
- Phase 2: The narrative museum (in the air); a hotel and two office buildings of 19 and 59 storeys.
- Phase 3: A conference centre, a school, a hotel, a library and an amphitheatre, plus four office buildings of 19 storeys.
- Phase 4: A performing-arts centre (theatre and concert hall) plus two ten-storey office buildings.
The Great Hall — designers' proposal: The project consists of eight office buildings together with public spaces such as shops, restaurants, the museum and two memorial spaces, all of which sit beneath a single roof. The memorial spaces are placed in the original location of the Twin Towers. Beside the glass great hall a tower is also built, part of which is a hotel and part offices.
The Sky Park — designers' proposal: The project consists of three office towers and public spaces (shops, restaurants, hotel and so on). The landscaped garden over the upper floors recalls the image of the Hanging Gardens.
1 Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) — formed on the afternoon of 11 September 2001 to rebuild Lower Manhattan (the section south of Houston Street). Its sixteen members include eight appointed by the Governor of New York and the rest by the Mayor.
2 Larry Silverstein.
3 Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
4-10 See NewYork Times 27 February 2003 / Architecture Week 6 March 2002 / NewYork Newsday 22 July 2002 — public meetings, Ground Zero clean-up operations, the public reactions and so on.
11 Per the lease, the maintenance and rebuilding of the towers fell to Silverstein for 99 years.
12 The towers' antenna makes up a substantial portion of their height and is not habitable, so the comparison is not straightforward. The world's tallest building is the Petronas Towers (Cesar Pelli) at 452 m. The CN Tower in Toronto, the world's tallest free-standing structure (552 m / 1,815 ft), was built in 1976.
13 Sunken memorial garden.
14 The slurry walls — built on the bedrock and foundations — are the most striking element to have remained after the terrorist attack.
15 Park of Heroes.
16 Wedge of Light.
17 "The sun will shine without shadow, in perpetual tribute to altruism and courage."
18 Underground malls.
19 Performing-arts center.
20 Street-level shops.
21 Retail space.
22 On 11 September approximately 12-15 million sq ft of office space was destroyed and an equal area was rendered unusable (source: NewYork Newsday).
23 Towers of Culture.
