Posted on 05/02/2005 5:50:31 AM PDT by OESY
With the Freedom Tower stalled and possibly dead, New Yorkers who never liked it are speaking out. This includes some whom the Freedom Tower was most cynically calculated to pander to — the families of those murdered on 9/11, and the heroes of that day.
Many of them want new, safer Twin Towers to pierce Manhattan's skyline once again.
Daniel Libeskind sold his Ground Zero commission not with brilliant architecture, but through psychobabble about New York's recovery from 9/11. He named his proposal "Memory Foundations," and stuck a trumped-up memorial at the center of his Ground Zero plan. Libeskind wanted to enshrine a 70-foot-pit at Ground Zero to remind everyone of the "unimaginable trauma" of 9/11 — and a "Wedge of Light" (don't ask) was supposed to somehow pay tribute to "altruism and courage."
The Giant Pit turned out to be architecturally impractical — and the Wedge has been discredited by an independent architect. But much of the rest of the mumbo-jumbo plan for New York's recovery proceeds. This includes forsaking Downtown's modern history to erase the memory of the World Trade Center from the face of the earth — in favor of a bizarre, 1,776-foot homage to the Statue of Liberty.
But Libeskind's "soaring offset spire," complete with "a unique geometrical torque," is turning out to be an architectural horror-show, too; 31/2 years after 9/11, nobody knows what the top of the tower will actually look like, or how it will be built.
...The New Yorkers most personally affected by 9/11 are not the monolithic special-interest bloc of tragically damaged victims Libeskind had envisioned. Some of them don't want a post-modern monument to failure built at Ground Zero in their names.
No, these individuals don't claim to speak for anyone but themselves. But they deserve to be heard....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
However, I have changed my mind. If the U.S. got serious about protecting our buildings and our skies by, say, requiring pistols in most airliner cockpits, I believe there would be no alternative to rebuilding the WTC. Considering the time value of money, including lost rents and tax revenues, it has become too costly not to do so. Hats off to those who from the start saw through Libeskind's seductive labels.
Our national honor demands we throw away existing plans, stop the controversies and delays, and rebuild the Twin Towers.
I am with you 100%. Rebuild them as they were, using more modern techniques and materials including improved safety passages. We surmise why they fell, we can build them stronger with what we have learned. It would be the ultimate slap across the face of the enemy.
There is something seriously wrong, when the reconstuction of two building takes this long to even begin. At this rate we will be returning to the moon in 2060 as 3rd rate passengers in someone elses space program. We use to have leadership, and we use to be able to make thing happen; but, it looks like that is no longer the case.
The nation's morale would soar if those towers came back to the skyline where they belong. The good thing about this delay is that it is allowing time to reconsider the initial decision not to rebuild.
> Rebuild them as they were, using more modern techniques and materials including improved safety passages.
And haul OBL up to the top, when we've caught him, and give the monster the old heave ho.
-- better yet, three years ago.
Libeskinds vision is nothing more than a monument to the accomplishment of the perpetrators and a shrine for US victimhood.
Build the towers with their appearance approx the same as before, and a small monument to those who died.
The mumbo-jumbo and psychobabble pervasive not just here but throughout our society almost guarantees it.
Amen... this WTC attack survivor wants to see new towers, taller than the originals, equipped for antiaircraft defense. And patrols back in the sky. And the border with Mexico sealed.
The Freedom Tower would have been a major eye sore. I however dislike the idea of the Twin Towers being built up exactly as they were, with only structural improvements. They ought to be close to what they were, but something has got to be different--bigger or somehow more magnificent.
i agree with your sentiment, but i think that we should rebuild them TALLER. to show that we come back from adversity stronger and better than before. NYC ought to reclaim it's name as home to the world's tallest building...
The Freedom Tower is a silly, feminine design from an arrogant German homo. We should bring back the exact twin towers, if only so it won't be so painful to watch movies like "Superman" and "Trading Places".
I felt at the time that it would be better to rebuild the Twin Towers rather than give the terrorists a permanent memorial to their crimes. We can still remember the victims in a meaningful way. Build them safer, yes, but raise them up again. In my opinion, such a bold reaction would be more of a tribute to American courage than any symbolic tribute could be. Knock us down, we get back up.
I am opposed to both plans on the grounds of practicality.
In the orignal WTC, it took almost 10 minutes to get from the lobby to the top floor. If they added a lot of security, smoking breaks for office workers would last several hours.
I favor building normal-sized office buildings, 30 or 40 stories, which the free market would naturally support as profitable and sensible.
I support rebuilding the towers as they were.
I think they ought to build them similar in height, but with a more modern structural design and put a huge cross at the top! Tick off the terrorists AND the ACLU all at once...
Rebuild them similiar to the ole, but 10 stories higher! That would make alot of Americans very proud!
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