LIBESKIND STORMS OUT IN WTC BATTLE (Dueling Architects)

NY Post ^ | 10/23/03 | WILLIAM NEUMAN

[finnman69]

October 23, 2003 -- Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind stormed out of a meeting about the design of the site's Freedom Tower, threatening to break up his collaboration with the project's lead architect, David Childs, sources told The Post. After the Monday afternoon face-off, Libeskind also ordered several staffers working at Childs' Skidmore Owings & Merrill offices to pack up their equipment and leave - but at least two of them returned to work the next day.

[finnman69]

I knew this was coming. I knew it. Libeskind has never designed anything remotely in scale or complexity and is a dreamer, not a bulder. David Childs has designed and built several multi-million sf mixed use complexes in NYC as well as numerous skyscrapers. I know that Silverstein wants the SOM/Childs design as do the retail tenants.

The dueling architect saga will soon end with one design and it wont be the Libeskind design you have seen in the press.

[finnman69]

WTC rebuilding news PING!

[Incorrigible]

I like the Libeskind tower design. I didn't like any of the lattuce designs. I'm rooting for Libeskind in this duel!

[NYC GOP Chick]

Who the hell chose this nutbag with zero office design experience?!

[finnman69]

Why...the LMDC of course (eyes roll).

[finnman69]

Trust me, go to Libeskinds web site and see pics of the few buildings he has had built. They look like the WTC clean up site.

[NYC GOP Chick]

How did the Leave Manhattan Destroyed Company choose this weirdo? Did he have compromising pictures of Whitehead?

[finnman69]

The irony is the final design will be much like one of the early massing schemes that were presented in all white with out detail.

[NYC GOP Chick]

You mean the ones that looked like downtown Albany?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

...antenna that evokes the raised torch of the Statue of Liberty

Forgive my ignorance of architecture, but doesn't the Statue of Liberty already do that by itself? It's still there, it's not like it's in another city.

[finnman69]

When these "star" architects with big egos have an idea, they wont let go. If this guy cant work with the rest of the team he should resign and get out of the way.

[NewYorker]

the final design will be much like one of the early massing schemes

Thank heavens - anything but that ghastly Liebeskind design with the huge pit.

[jbstrick]

I went to Libeskind's web site. Personally, I don't like his style too much. They look like a mangled mess.

[finnman69]

sort of like Albany. One was better than the others....

sort of like a combo of these two. Really not different from libeskinds masterplan at all when you strip off the bizarre curtainwalls.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/717109/posts

[finnman69]

Of the two masterplans I posted, SOM designed the one on the right.

[js1138]

Generally overlooked is the fact that NYC lost 10 percent of its office space, equivalent to losing the city of Cincinatti. That's a chunk of income and jobs and taxes.

Memorials are nice, but continuing to prosper is nicer.

[NYC GOP Chick]

What I'd really like is for them to just dust off the original blueprints, make whatever upgrades are necessary and rebuild as they were -- just a few floors higher.

[SJSAMPLE]

Forget the few floors.
We have the technology (but lack the incentive) to build buildings that will set and hold the record for the next 50 years. There's no reason not to do it.

[AngryJawa]

Prima donna architect storms out of meeting in a huff.

Gee, that's a new one.

Confession: I have a BS in Architecture and worked for several of them. This crap and the general aroma of artistic bullsqueeze drove me away.

I still deal with architects on a fairly regular basis. It's never pleasant.

[Tares]

There's no reason not to do it.

Not economical. Are you willing to pay for it?