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.

[freedumb2003]

The towers in the front and left look like they could use some Viagra! A little soft looking.

[hellinahandcart]

You need to be a qualified architect with a creative vision to be able to think "outside the square..."
As I say, you really need to look at WWW.CHAI.TV colourful design sketches to be able to appreciate the CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

Pretty darned full of yourself, aren't you?

I am an artist and a New Yorker, and I don't need you to tell me what I "need".

[freedumb2003]

>>Pretty darned full of yourself, aren't you? <<

Also, I looked there and can't figure out what the dsign is supposed to be. And yes, his site is full of himself. Anyone who puts his picture (and no real quals) on his own site must have a real self-confidence issue.

I guess I fell for his self-promotion but I am willing to look at anything since it would be better than what has been proposed so far. I looked at the Phoenix thing someone mentioned earler and it's a little better than the other proposals but still ain't it.

I keep thinking they need to broaden the range, maybe have the major archirecture/design schools come up with some ideas.

[Snowy]

More like a phallic symbol! This is awful!

Glad it's not only me! Can you just hear it?

"Which part of the WTC do you work in ...?"

"Errrr......"