Gaudi bid for Twin Towers memorial (NEW WTC DESIGN)

The Times ^ | January 23, 2003 | Nicholas Wapshott

[MadIvan]

A SOARING, glass-domed tower designed nearly a century ago by the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí has become the latest entry in the competition to find a replacement for New York’s twin towers.

Grand design: Antoni Gaudi's 1908 commission

Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, was commissioned in 1908 to build his 1,181ft-tall hotel, to be topped by a public observation platform in the shape of an enormous glass star, in Lower Manhattan, but the project was never realised.

Now Paul Laffoley, a Boston-based architect, has teamed up with scholars and artists from Barcelona to revive Gaudí’s dream, with the new structure decorated with artefacts from the fallen twin towers as a memorial to those who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The revised plans will be unveiled at the City University of New York graduate centre tonight.

“A lot of the other proposals are literal ego trips, but here is a way that everyone can be involved in a historical project from around the world,” Mr Laffoley said. “The Sagrada Familia has become the symbol of Barcelona and Gaudí meant his hotel to be the symbol of New York.”

“If they only knew about this building, the people of New York would come to love it,” Marc Mascort, who has made computer models of the building, said. “Bringing this to New York would be more important than the Olympic Games.”

A decision about what should eventually fill the site at Ground Zero has been repeatedly delayed by confusion about who is entitled to be the final arbiter, with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the site owner, the site lessees and Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, all claiming the final say.

[MadIvan]

More:

Overall View
Cross Section
Gaudi's Buildings

I can only say, "better". Looks a trifle cartoonish for my liking though.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

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[nutmeg]

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[Miss Marple]

I am not fond of Gaudi's style, although I suppose that reveals me as a Philistine. It does look cartoonish to me, as well.

[habs4ever]

Ah, 80 story dildos..how clever!

[antaresequity]

One word: Ridiculous

[Chemnitz]

The Dance of the Mushrooms.

[The KG9 Kid]

I like it.

[tet68]

I kinda like it, it sort of remindes me of this.

We could paint an american flag on it and point it at North Korea.

[mystery-ak]

It looks like a bullet to me....but what do I know about art!

[spokeshave]

Probably take as long to build as the cathedral in Barcelona....can someone post a link...thanks

[tet68]

As I remember the plans it is quite a bit larger than any thing imaginable today.

My library is packed away or I would dig out the specs.

[Happygal]

It looks like a dildo! *LOL*

[inkling]

Here's one of Gaudi's most famous buildings, "La Escuela de la Sagrada Familia" (Church of the Sacred Family), in Barcelona

[RepublicanHippy]

"Looks a trifle cartoonish"

More like a phallic symbol! This is awful!

[AnnaZ]

I LOVE Gaudí.

 

Some more info on the design here: http://www.op.net/~jmeltzer/Gaudi/hotel.html

 

He certainly wasn't boring.

 

[hellinahandcart]

Well, I love Gaudi, but this is...NOT GOOD.

And definitely not New York.

Why is it so hard to come up with a design with the right "look" for the city?

I want to lock 1000 architects in one room and make them listen to "Rhapsody in Blue" at full volume until one of them GETS it.

[KineticKitty]

I'm glad you said that first, lol. I was thinking that thing seems to have a lot of phallic symbols designed into it. As Shrek would say.. "I wonder if he is compensating for something?"

[Jorge]

Ah, 80 story dildos..how clever!

LOL...my thoughts exactly.