July 16, 2002
NEW YORK — Six proposals for redeveloping New York’s World Trade Center site were unveiled Tuesday, and all envision a memorial park to honor the 2,800 people killed there on Sept. 11. None of the potential designs would include buildings as high as the fallen twin towers.
“EACH PLAN begins with a memorial acknowledging that as we rebuild, we must remember,” John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said at a morning news conference. “The six plans are not final blueprints. Each of the plans represents a package of proposed ideas. These ideas can be mixed and matched and reconstituted based on public input.”
The proposals call for replacing the 11 million square feet of office and retail space lost on Sept. 11 with a cluster of buildings much shorter than the 110-story towers.
Four of the plans would keep clear the ground once occupied by the towers. The memorial parks could take up as much as a third to two-thirds of the 16-acre trade center site.
Among the ideas are a proposal dubbed “Memorial Plaza” that would feature an 8-acre open space and a free-standing tower at the northwest corner of the site. “Memorial Triangle” would create several triangular parks and triangular building sites. “Memorial Park” would have a 6-acre park but would allow commercial development on the footprints.
Memorial Plaza Key features: 8-acre plaza with a memorial/cultural building; 5 towers (1 at 79 stories, 2 at 67 stories, and 2 at 62 stories).
Memorial SquareKey features: 10-acre square with a memorial/cultural building; 4 towers (1 at 80 stories, 2 at 70 stories, 1 at 56 stories)
Memorial TriangleKey features: 5-acre triangular open space; memorial/cultural facilities; 6 towers (1 at 85 stories, 1 at 61 stories, and 4 at 59 stories)
Memorial GardenKey features: 4-acre open space; Memorial or cultural facilities; 5 towers (1 at 80 stories, 2 at 66 stories, 2 at 50 stories)
Memorial ParkKey features: 6-acre park; public square and two buildings for museum or cultural use; 5 towers (2 at 72 stories, 3 at 45 stories)
Memorial PromenadeKey features: large oval park, two public squares and promenade connecting to museum/cultural facilities; 6 towers (2 at 63 stories, 4 at 32 stories)
Groups representing victims’ families have demanded that the ground where the towers stood not be used for anything but a memorial.
“Where Tower 1 and Tower 2 stood is sacred ground,” said Joseph Maurer, a retired firefighter whose daughter, Jill Campbell, died in the trade center. “It’s the same as Gettysburg or Pearl Harbor.”
The tallest building in any of the six plans rises 85 stories. In an attempt to echo the lost towers, each plan contains at least one needle-like structure atop an office tower for a total height of 1,500 feet. The trade center towers were 1,350 feet tall.
All the plans restore some of the street grid that was eliminated when the World Trade Center was built, but any streets may wind up being only for pedestrians.
‘A STARTING POINT’
The six plans are rough drafts — not detailed architectural renderings — and represent the first in a series of steps to redevelop the site.
“This is the starting point for dialogue,” said Matthew Higgins, spokesman for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the city-state agency charged with redeveloping the site. “The next step is to actively engage the public through as many different forums as possible.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the proposals “a start.”
“I’ve got my own ideas, which I will certainly write to them,” said Bloomberg. He encouraged others to do the same.
While some victims’ relatives initially called for the entire site to be set aside as a memorial, many now say they will be satisfied with a memorial that includes the ground covered by the towers.
The preliminary plans do not name particular tenants, but there has been speculation that the Museum of the City of New York and the New York City Opera could be located at the site.
While none of the plans calls for housing on the tract itself, they do suggest that damaged office buildings along the periphery could be razed for housing or converted to apartments.
An expected 5,000 people will discuss the plans at a town hall meeting Saturday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
The development corporation and the Port Authority will narrow the six land-use proposals down to three by September and then down to one by December.
Allen Morrison, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said the final plan could include elements of all six of the early drafts.
The plans were prepared by the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle. Among the firm’s better-known projects was the renovation of the city’s Grand Central Terminal.
Detailed conceptual images of the proposals, as well as additional background, are online at www.renewnyc.com.
CEREMONY AND LANDFILL
A somber and symbolic ceremony Monday marked the end of the massive hunt for human remains, personal items and criminal evidence from the site.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
“We see the best and the worst,” Bloomberg said, standing a few feet from a mound of debris at a landfill where debris was taken. “We are here because of the worst of humanity, the terrorists who caused so many deaths and so much pain.”
John Tedesco, a firefighter from Engine Company 9 in Manhattan who sifted through the debris with hundreds of other firefighters, police officers and sanitation workers, was philosophical about finishing up the work.
“It has to end sooner or later. You can’t keep going on. There has to be a stopping point, but there will never be closure because so many people haven’t been found,” Tedesco said.
The landfill became the final stop for debris, which was hauled to the site by trucks and barges.
Remains of 1,229 victims, or about 44 percent of the dead, have been identified.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that 54,000 personal items had been recovered and identified.
NO REMAINS FOR 800
The ceremony came two days after the New York City medical examiner’s office said that about 800 of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks are likely never to be identified.
As human remains were found at the landfill, they were taken to the medical examiner’s office in Manhattan, where scientists are still comparing them to samples from personal articles such as hairbrushes or toothbrushes.
The office is identifying about 20 people per week and will probably continue its work until the end of the year.
There are about 19,700 samples in storage at the medical examiner’s office, and they will be saved for years in case breakthroughs in DNA research can provide additional answers.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/779908.asp#models