CUBE architivity: WTC Responses

WTC Responses

Drawing: Dean W. Graves, FAIA

Should the World Trade Center be rebuilt?

Response by Hal Sandy, Graphic Designer
How do we treat this ground? In Berlin, Peter Eisemann is doing a vast holocaust monument--it's acres of ground. In German, it's called a mahnmal--which is a monument to something bad that happened. A disaster. It's been a PR disaster too. It has taken 10 years to decide what to do, what to build. Much argument. Should it be built at all. In the end, nobody will like it. Maybe just a simple plaque is enough to commemorate this, the worst of disasters.

Is it our fault? No. Not remotely. Not your fault. They could have chosen the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.........So, no way is this our fault or our American Way's fault. Pearl Harbor was not our fault. Coventry was not our fault. No.

What kind of a religion espouses the killing of thousands of totally innocent people. Occupied by Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, even one Swedish! Surely an evil religion. So yes, I believe in justice. This is surely evil personified. Even Moslem justice would require punishment. But we need to find out more, and I am confident we will find out a lot more. (What were their families paid?)

I note that the terrorists did not bomb the Petrona towers in Kuala Lumpur--just as tall, but built in a Moslem land......

I agree that this is a confusing time but maybe it's best for more information and more reflection. There are always reasons, and then we find out the real reasons. So I guess for my part, I want to let this sit awhile until we know more.

Response by Mike Ashley, Landscape Architect
My first thought was to agree with the developer and "re-build it bigger and better than before" and have new buildings to rally around as a country (with a special Memorial on-site), but you and Dean bring up some interesting points. As we all know, real estate is a precious commodity in New York, so I'm not sure that re-building can be stopped, as the developer proposed.

I think it will be important to get this message out to the design world in due time. How can we treat this site? What is appropriate and sensitive to this disaster site? What are the needs? (10% of New York's office space was in these buildings) Who will be the next users? What will the political body of New York City want? I think it will take a lot of soul searching and brain power to find a solution that is appropriate and is in dedication to those that lost their innocent lives. This space must also remain in scale with the rest of New York. It will be interesting to see what events transpire. For now, my support and prayers are with the people and their recovery efforts. Keep me posted on responses you get. I hope you are well.

Kevin Likener, architect, CUBE President
There's been A LOT of discussion about these same issues on my New Urbanism email lists the last week. I think you'll find that many people agree with your thoughts, and would love to see a more human-scaled response to the site, rather than either simply rebuilding or over-memorializing it. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds, and let's all hope that we don't have repeat incidents like this to worry about...

Barbara Kruger, Artist: Taken from New York Times, 9/30/01
I would like to have the World Trade Center site as a park, a beautifully landscaped park with an amphitheater for concerns. And it would need a small piece of the wrecked structure.

Shirin Neshat, Artist: Taken from New York Times, 9/30/01
It would be absolutely cruel to build a building on the site. In order to remember the loss of lives, you need a certain amount of emptiness.

James Turrell, Sculptor: Taken from New York Times, 9/30/01
The new buildings should be higher than the old ones, and there should be three of them.

John Baldessari, Artist: Taken from New York Times, 9/30/01
I don’t think anything should be built. The site should be a park. It’s an insane idea because the site is going to be an office, because the business of America is business.

R. J. T. Longabaugh
One theme that flies in the face of reality in all of this discussion: those who advocated building habitable structures failed to address the question of just who would be willing to occupy them? Placing any sort of significant target on that symbolic ground is going to be more of a challenge than any terrorist could resist.

Eleanor Bluestein, LaJolla, CA
The fallen towers are a final burial place for so many men and women that it seems fitting to solicit ideas from the families who mourn them. Let the mourners, in consultation with artists and architects, decide on the use of the space that will best memorialize their loved ones.

Herbert Muschamp, New York Times architectural critic, 10/7/01
Until the complex relationship of public and private is sorted out, it is premature to talk about what should or shouldn’t be built at Ground Zero. Meanwhile, when I see the grossly hyperbolic "Rebuilding New York" banner held aloft an ominous image comes to mind. Every public space is surrounded by hurricane fence. There is a sign hanging on it: This Property is Condemned.

Herbert Muschamp, New York Times architectural critic, 10/14/01
Architectural critics are traumatized. We’ve just witnessed the great American skyscraper turned into a weapon of mass destruction. The forum of discussion becomes more important than the event (structure) itself. The journey is the destination. This was very helpful in Oklahoma City as a part of the healing process. It is too soon for a charrette, but the discussion is an exercise in solidarity and a way of coping with trauma.

Paul Goldberger, HAIA, in an interview on Radio WNYZ with Kent Anderson
...It becomes a Disneyland reproduction if you build it as it is. We need to satisfy survivors as well as a need for workable space. Something very, very tall, but not an office tower...Towers of light...massive floodlights or lasers where buildings stood...pure towers of light...brilliantly simple...short term immediate statement...could be done quickly...

Heritage Education

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