Posted on 04/07/2005 12:14:47 PM PDT by A Longer Name
MORE New Yorkers are emerging from their 9/11 numbness to say: The Twin Towers should be rebuilt. Six weeks after 9/11, I wrote on these pages: "The World Trade Center was perfect the way it was. To build anything that is not as good or better will always mean that the thousands who work around, and eventually within, the complex will always recall the original with longing. To fail would be the saddest memorial to all that was destroyed."
(snip)
Showboating architect Daniel Libeskind treated Ground Zero like his personal p.r. backdrop. His 1,776-foot piece of concept art would've erased Downtown's modern heritage, eternally marring the skyline. He's mostly out of the picture now - but David Childs, WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein's architect, still can't make the Freedom Tower fit Downtown.
(snip)
But in the end, Libeskind may have unwittingly bought the city the time it needed to think rationally about Downtown's future: Since Ground Zero is still an empty pit, New York retains the option to rebuild our towers.
For two years, accomplished engineering/architectural team Ken Gardner and Herbert Belton have been doggedly perfecting their own vision of a restored World Trade Center. They want to build 115-story twin towers - with offices, apartments and a hotel to fit into the new, 24-hour Downtown. The towers would each feature six internal stairwells, not the old Twin Towers' four - and the stairs would be reinforced with superior fireproofing technology.
Each new tower would be set opposite one fallen tower's footprint - and a memorial built from the fragmented remains of each fallen tower would ensure that New York would memorialize the past without sacrificing Ground Zero's future. (See the plan at TwinTowersII.com.)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I would be 100% in favor as long as they built it RIGHT this time!
Yes! I would work in them, I know easy to say. Too bad I don't think insurance or full occupancy would ever happen no matter how much safer they were.
Build it higher and without trusses! It'll withstand a 777.
They were ugly, to be honest..
I agree the towers should be built back as they were. Using the latest building technology, of course.My only change would be to build them one foot taller than they were. Just to give the finger to terrorists.
I dunno. I worked their for six years, it wasn't that great a building. It took too much time to get in and out, and the floors were ridiculously large. Who needs a ten-minute commute to the lobby?
How about just some normal office buildings?
Rebuilding what was is not the path to take... It does not respect the past nor move anything forward.
If you want to do something interesting, take the crown of worlds tallest building and bring it back to the USA on the site.. but to rebuild 2 twin boring monoliths is not what it should be.
I don't want an extra foot, but an extra 10 stories or more.
duplicate towers should be errected in mecca on mohamed's grave.
Do it like this:
Interesting article!
I keep going back and forth on this. Sometimes I say "if we want to rebuild, then rebuild - on the footprints, larger, improved buildings." Certainly the ideas of restoring the skyline and showing the terrorist bastards they can't win is appealing to me. Going on, stronger than before, would also be a fitting memorial to those who died as well.
But I wonder now and then if, in a sense, having the Towers back up would be more of a sad reminder than not rebuilding them, in some strange way. I don't know - I said I was confused.
It should be about the people, not the buildings, primarily. But in some sense it is not. The Towers were symbols. (I lived in the area for years.) Not that it should be this way, but I think the tragedy is somewhat different in people's minds than if the same number of people died but the Towers were still standing. Not that it should be, but for some I think it is.
But if, say, the White House or the Statue of Liberty were destroyed (God forbid) we would rebuild them without hesitation.
Plenty of stuff to ridicule in that barrage of psychobabble. But I'll be interested in others' thoughts on this.
My take is: build two towers on that place but make them (a) taller than before, and (b) more pleasing for the eyes.
that works
Considering our welcome mat to immigrants should be removed and that the statue was a gift from france I wouldnt be too hurt if the obsolete relic was melted down and made into MOABS and Daisy Cutters.
I don't mind the discussion, I just don't see what slamming the architect has to do with the concept of rebuiliding the Towers as they were. It's not his decision.
I like your design best of all.
I think they should be rebuilt. Using the latest technology but make them 111 floors each. I cannot think of a more fitting memorial than to rebuild and show the terrorists that they will not suceed.
Understood!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.