This article was originally posted on DenverPost.com on February 28, 2003.
New York – On Thursday morning, Daniel Libeskind became officially
responsible for the design of the most important building project
of at least the past 50 years.
At a jammed news conference in Lower Manhattan, the Berlin-based
architect was named the winner of an international design
competition to rebuild on the World Trade Center site.
The magnitude of the event was reflected in the more than 300
journalists from 22 countries assembled at the World Financial
Center a few hundred feet west of ground zero of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.
Libeskind, also the architect for the Denver Art Museum’s planned
$62.5 million addition, understood the significance of the moment
and tried to address it as he began his remarks.
“Most deeply and most profoundly, I want to thank the people of
New York, the people of America, the people of the world, but the
people of New York for the extraordinary commitment and passion
that they have shown for the future of this fantastic city.”
During an ensuing slide show, Libeskind spoke of the many aspects
of the project, which is designed to provide an appropriate site
for a planned memorial to the 9/11 victims, rebuild much of the
lost office space and reconnect the area to adjacent
neighborhoods.
One of the most prominent elements of the design is a “park of
memories,” a 4.7-acre open area 30 feet below street level. It
will leave visible about 300 feet of one of the site’s raw
foundation walls.
“That resonated with people emotionally, immediately,” said
Robert Ivy, editor of Architectural Record magazine. “It was
tactile. It was visible. This is something that has moved everyone
who has seen it.”
Also included will be a series of buildings that will feature a
1,776-foot-tall tower – a height chosen for its patriotic
symbolism. The tower would contain only 65 floors of office space
with an observation deck and restaurant on the 110th floor and a
television antenna that will make it the world’s tallest
structure.
Everyone who took part in Thursday’s ceremony, including New York
Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
lavished praise on the project and spoke of the message it sends
about the future of New York.
“Libeskind’s plan succeeds both when it rises into the sky and
when descends into the ground,” said John Whitehead, chairman of
the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which sponsored the design
competition that drew more than 400 submissions. “In doing so, it
captures the soaring optimism of our city and honors the eternal
spirit of our fallen spirits.”
But not everyone was enthusiastic. Among a small group of
protesters who tried to attend the news conference was Laura
Walker, whose husband, Ben, died in the disaster. He was on the
94th floor of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
Told that signs were not permitted in the World Financial Center,
she and her young daughter were being asked to leave by security
personnel as reporters were trying to interview her.
She carried a placard with a small photo of her husband and the
words “Let Him Rest in Peace – Not in a Bus Terminal or Garage,”
referring to the planned transportation hub that is part of the
project.
“They’re designing buildings before the memorial,” she said,
breaking into tears, “and 3,000 people died there. There should be
a memorial first. It’s not complicated.”
Michael Lewis, an architectural historian who has closely watched
the competition, cited several elements he did not like about the
project, especially the main tower.
“It’s one of these relentlessly narcissistic commercial towers,”
he said. “It’s trying to do what the Empire State Building did or
the ATT Building or Trump Tower, which is call attention to
itself.”
The question of who will be the principal architect for the project
was answered Thursday morning, but dozens of other questions
remain. What is the price tag and who will pay for it? When will
construction begin and how long will it take?
Doubts were also voiced about whether the design that was presented
will actually be what is eventually realized or whether it will be
transformed in the highly political rebuilding process.
Paul Goldberger, architectural critic for the New Yorker magazine,
fears such an outcome, but he is encouraged by what has happened.
“Things were so screwed up a few months ago,” he said, “that the
fact that the governor of New York and the mayor of New York would
be unveiling a project by an architect like Daniel Libeskind to put
the tallest structure in the world on the site of ground zero, I
would have thought is incomprehensible.”
