Rising to Greatness (More REALLY ugly designs for the WTC)

New York Magazine ^ | 9/902 | JOSEPH GIOVANNINI

[frodolives]

I kind of like the Hot Wheels track.

[stainlessbanner]

hahahaha - "functional, yet refined"

[stainlessbanner]

Yeah they would look pretty good on Krypton, huh?

[Wm Bach]

I'm fond of the visions of past futurists, too.

[Middle Man]

Here's one New Yorker on why the World Trade Center should not be rebuilt as before. I had no idea it was just a big government boondoggle from the start.

[nravoter]

Yeah they would look pretty good on Krypton, huh?

Complete with a "phantom zone" for imprisoning bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and the rest.

[Taliesan]

There seem to be two requirements:

1. Something as tall (Defiance)

2. Something that sacralizes where people died (Memory).

Here's how to do it: A single structure, tapering in from the bottom, which has a footprint spanning the entire complex. But the structure rests on legs, like the eiffel tower, and between the legs is open air up 2 or 3 stories, and then the first 10 or 20 stories are glass. This creates an open atrium of the footprint, which would be a walking rose garden for all four seasons, with benches and etc.

In the glass would be etched the names of victims in transparent etching, in large enough letters that you could stand inside and look up and see your loved ones name, and you could, at the right time of day, find the spot on the floor whwere the sun would cast the name of your beloved.

But above the 10 th story solid walls would start, and it would rise and taper in, with commercial space up to the 111th "story, which would be nothing but a pedestal for the giant spotlight pointing to heaven and extending the top of the needle infinitely into the night sky.

From the distance it would look like a giant eiffel tower supporting a pillar of light. At the bottom, it would be a functioning green space and a memorial, and the names would supply the power we learned names hold when the Vietnam Memorial was built. (There must be names, but they must also be "touchable".)

To the patriot, it would say Defiance; to the families, it would say Memory.

[js1138]

Aside from that, the facility needs lots of office space and the latest utilities and the head of OBL on a pike at the main entrance.

NY lost as much office space as in the entire downtown Atlanta. Failure to rebuild rentable space will damage NY forever.

[DaughterofEve]

I do think that the rebuilt WTC towers would be more of a target than anything else, but that doesn't mean I disagree with anything else that you said.

Hey I loved Dublin and Dún Laoghaire and Dalkey!

[Conagher]

If we're going to go the avant-garde route, then here's my idea. One 110-storey depiction of a human hand with the middle finger prominently extended.

Make sure it faces Mecca.

[hellinahandcart]

Rebuilding beautifully and joyfully, presenting a vision at once soaring and dignified, honors the dead as well as the living.

So where's the beauty, joy, vision, and dignity, hmmm?

I tell ya, finnman69, I am beginning to dread this at my core. We've gone from mediocrity of design to avant-garde insults.

The problem is that none of these proposals say "New York" to me. The only building design that I like at all is Zapata's, and I don't like it for Lower Manhattan.

And I imagine that the residents of Battery Park might object to crossing a moat and an "urban wilderness" on their way in or out of their homes.

[hellinahandcart]

NYers are really clamoring for a giant lava lamp and Hot Wheels track.

LOL! Thanks. It's definitely a Hot Wheels track.

The tower looks more like a bong, though. Lava lamps are curvy.

[SerpentDove]

>>These designs want to memorialize 9/11. In effect, they are rewarding the attackers by creating a huge monument to their efforts.<<

I agree, and they're downright creepy, to boot.