Posted on 10/31/2006 1:12:06 PM PST by presidio9
It's the only piece of the World Trade Center still standing where it was before terrorists destroyed the twin towers.
But the "survivors' staircase," a path to safety for countless workers on September 11th, 2001, will be moved -- to build one of five planned office towers on the site.
Preservationists, including a group that named the staircase one of America's most endangered places this year, are lobbying to keep the only standing remnant of the destroyed trade center complex where it is.
A final home for the The 21-foot-high, 350-thousand-pound staircase, which once connected an elevated plaza to a street north of the site, still isn't decided.
Historians had hoped it would be returned to the same spot where survivors of the terrorist attacks found it in a debris-filled plaza, following the stairs from a bridge to street level just before the second tower collapsed.
Yokels etc. is just charming NYC slang for much valued domestic tourists. Europeans of a certain socio-economc level are affectionately called Euro Trash
If you read my post, you might have noticed that I advocated encorporating the facade and the cross in the memorial. Dorky liberal "reflecting pools" and eternal flames have nothing to do with the terrorist attack.
What's the last multi-billion dollar project that went up smoothly in NYC?
If they had just built buildings and not worried so much about getting the right touchy-feely memorial, they would have been done already. That formula worked for 7 WTC.
Once Osama busted his move, that became completely beside the point. I'm with Donald Trump on this one. Build the towers again, only stronger, and from the exterior absolutely indistinguishable from the originals, down to the last detail, it doesn't matter if nobody but the NYPA offices there.
You have to take away Mohamed Atta's victory trophy -- which is the hole in the New York skyline. You absolutely cannot let them have the last word on that.
And if it takes a billion damned people dying under a rain of our weapons, if George Bush and the next five presidents have to drop this country's mailed fist until there are absolutely no Moslems left who object to our having two 1300-foot buildings at the corner of Vesey St. and West Side Highway, then that is what we by-God have to do.
We are entitled to peace, security, and the enjoyment of our property and our community. No cringing before Moo holy men -- kill every last one of them, if they're going to bring that attitude. Whatever it takes to make Islam really a "religion of peace", well, then, let's do it. But no crayfishing on repairing the damage they did.
I did read your post, I just don't agree with it. the facade and the cross are junk - twisted metal, nothing more. I think a more fitting use would be to melt it and craft bombers or bombs with it, but I admit I'm of the bloodthirsty sort.
I agree with you that dorky reflecting pools and eternal flames are dumb. That's not my idea of a memorial. You actually saw this at the 2004 Dem Convention - they cart out some 911 widows to light some candles and everybody feels bad.
Well, of course everybody feels bad. The question is not whether someone feels bad, it's what they think we should do now. I vote for melting the twisted metal, crafting weapons, and 'bombs away.'
That being said, a reflecting pool and an eternal flame are not the only components of a proposed memorial, nor essential components. I just don't think a new skyscraper, food court, and shopping area is a fitting memorial.
I don't think that's exactly it. It took years before they could even settle on 'finalists' for the building design, let alone the memorial design.
Inept.
Skyscraper and food court will not be part of the memorial. No matter what gets built, there will still be a Burger King, a Brooks Brothers, a discount deparment store, a pizza place, and a hardware store directly across the street, and in full view of any visitors. Will those businesses offend your delicate sensibilities as well?
Here's the thing about what's going to happen and it's very, very simple. They will build whatever makes the most sense in terms of generating income.
The original towers had generated huge income in their early days, but had fallen off markedly. So they won't be replacing them with replicas. They will build the structure that attracts the most tenants willing to pay the most rent.
I'm sorry to report that they really do have the last word on the WTC. We lost, they won. They won big, in fact. We lost huge.
We fight another day. That's all.
Building new skyscrapers there just sucks. Wanna build a hotel/resort at Pearl Harbor? I don't.
The please tell me how 7 WTC got built and 50% inhabited in less than five years.
Empire State Building was seen as a folly being built in the middle of the depression. They flooded the construction site with guys willing to work cheap. They had lines of guys around the block looking for work. If you got hurt up on the steel, they'd just send down for a replacement who would work just as cheap.
Cause there was no convoluted, self serving competition for a building design that lasted over three years?
Pearl Harbor has tons of resorts and skyscrapers. What you are talking about is the AZ memorial, which is in the water. It would be impractical to build anything there. NYC is faced with extremely limitied landspace. Wasting any of it would be a crime.
I also agree with the poster who suggested that leaving a hole in the city's famous skyline is another win for OBL.
That's certainly a part of it, but not all of it. We can't get plans off the table in 15 months these days, let alone build the tallest building in the world in that time, or twice that time.
I think 15 or so men died in the building of the ESB. I suppose that's sexist - 15 women should have died, too.
Plus, if it's a rush job then they'll just end up with another new Penn Station/Madison Sq Garden complex.
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