Begining the Rebuilding
After the attacks on September 11th, a large portion of Lower Manhattan was destroyed. This area would come to be known as ground zero. Rescue workers worked 24 hours daily for eight months to clear the space. With 14.6 acres of usable land, the question was what would happen to it. Would it be used for a monument to remember the horrors of 9/11, or would it be completely rebuilt with no regard to the prior events? With many ideas of new buildings and monuments getting thrown around, construction on the site was very slow, which angered Lary Silverstein (a previous owner of the Twin Towers). He believed that the place should be rebuilt as quickly as possible replacing the open area with office space to fill what was lost. Without the input of the New York Port Authority, Lary Silverstein began construction on the new 7 World Trade Center in 2002 and ended in 2006. This large glass office building stands alone on the site because the New York Port Authority was drumming up a master plan for the site while constriction was going on for 7 World Trade Center.
The Design Process
During this time, The New York Port Authority created the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. A corporation tasked with mediating all of the different design inputs. They began a design competition which already had its finalists picked by 2002. Each design was drawn up by some of the world’s most renowned architects. The first design was created by the think team named the World Cultural Center. This open-air design created by a lattice structure was not meant for usable office space but instead was meant as a memorial to the towers in which visitors could climb them. This was denied because of the lack of office which Larry Silverstein wanted. Another proposal tried to fix the issue the last one had. This design created by Norman Foster was created as a memorial to the original towers but was connected at many points and utilized a triangular shape as opposed to the box shape in which the previous towers were built. The interior structure of the towers was designed so that from many points of view, the original shape of the twin towers would shine through. Many people liked the proposal and the memorial that it gave to the site. Whereas others believed that making the original shape of the towers visible to the entire city, would make the attack the sole defining moment of NYC. Neither of these designs prevailed over Daniel Libeskind’s proposal of “Memory foundations. His design was placed around an arch that was centered around the original site of the former Twin Towers. When viewed from the stature of liberty the height difference of the towers were designed to grow in ascending order. The largest building in the site is a single skyscraper which stretches to the symbolic height of 1776 ft which commemorates the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The design of the skyscraper would have the back portion of it utilized for office space, but the front side facing the water would be a large open glass greenhouse. The spire of the building would also not be centered with the rest of the building. It is instead off to the side in an attempt to resemble the Statue of Liberty. Lary Silverstein did not like the idea of the building so he hired his architect David Childes to design a structure which was denied. Leibskind and Childes were put together to create the freedom tower that we all know today.
Creating the Memorial
The memorial site also has its competition, but the idea that shone through was Reflecting Absence by Michael Arad, and Peter Walker. These two memorial pools which were built on the former site of the towers had artificial waterfalls running down the sides which were lined with the names of the deceased from the attacks on September 11th and the bombing which took place in 1993.
Looking into the Future
Work continues to progress on the site with plans to build World Trade Center 5 set in motion, and World Trade Centers 3 and 4 built. World Trade Center has gone under many different designs because of the lack of companies that will accept a lease and sign on to the building’s space. The rebuilding of this space provides America with a sense of pride which was restored after 9/11. Just as Alan Gratz said “And without a dream, without ambition, what point was there to living?” What would have been the point of rebulding this space if there was not a dream to build back from the rubble.
