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Gaudi bid for Twin Towers memorial (NEW WTC DESIGN)
The Times ^ | January 23, 2003 | Nicholas Wapshott

Posted on 01/22/2003 4:59:02 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: New York; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: gaudi; hotel; phallic; spain; twintowers
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To: AnnaZ
I have to say, that is a beautiful building he designed in that pic.
21 posted on 01/22/2003 5:18:02 PM PST by KineticKitty
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To: Miss Marple; MadIvan; habs4ever
Can we just rebuild the new ones to look like they were on 9-10-2001??

Enough with all these designs....give us back OUR TWIN TOWERS!!!

22 posted on 01/22/2003 5:19:41 PM PST by Dog (TAG LINE SALE: Bargain basement prices all inventory must go --- -- Fast Doggies used tag lines.)
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To: habs4ever; MadIvan
Ah, 80 story dildos..how clever!

LOL! However, it's definitely a different approach, and might be very interesting with some modification.

I'd like to see the final plans as unveiled at CCNY tonight. Gaudí's stuff is fantastic, but of course, designed for an entirely different type of construction. However, he used mathematical proportions, geometry, and even the physics of light in a way that I think nobody has ever followed up on. He died well before the completion of his masterwork (which is still not completed), and the dreary Soviet-like International Style eventually won out.

This could be something great - or it could be a ridiculous no-starter. But I'm interested in learning more about it.

23 posted on 01/22/2003 5:21:55 PM PST by livius
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To: Happygal
I am ashamed to say that was my second thought - the first was a Rocketeer-type rocket. What size batteries will it take? (sorry)
24 posted on 01/22/2003 5:22:10 PM PST by bootless (I want to be a Troublemaker when I grow up!)
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Build 'em just like they were!
25 posted on 01/22/2003 5:22:56 PM PST by King Nothing (insert witty saying here)
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To: inkling
Escuela means school. I believe you meant "iglesia".
26 posted on 01/22/2003 5:25:30 PM PST by Defiant
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To: hellinahandcart
"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."

Hehehe! I LIKE it! I like it a lot!

27 posted on 01/22/2003 5:29:34 PM PST by A Citizen Reporter (I HATE THE MEDIA! .........except for a select few on Fox News!)
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To: MadIvan
A definite improvement over other submissions. Only it looks like somthing out of 1920s SciFi. illustrations.
28 posted on 01/22/2003 5:29:49 PM PST by Flying Circus
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To: Happygal
You must learn more about architecture! It is in fact a series of dildos!
29 posted on 01/22/2003 5:30:07 PM PST by JennysCool
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To: habs4ever
Maybe he also plans on holding the copyright on those dildos too.
30 posted on 01/22/2003 5:30:46 PM PST by ReformedBeckite
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To: RepublicanHippy
"Looks a trifle cartoonish" More like a phallic symbol! This is awful!

Looks like something the Jetsons would live in.

31 posted on 01/22/2003 5:34:57 PM PST by T Minus Four (Jane, his wife........)
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To: hellinahandcart
Why is it so hard to come up with a design with the right "look" for the city?

Well, the Twin Towers were the wrong look for the city, too. Stuck out like sore thumbs. But after more than 20 years, their absence leaves a hole in the skyline. The rigid lines and shiny steel of the Twin Towers belonged in Midtown above 42nd St.

If I was an architect, I'd stop trying to be so darn creative and do an old time Art Deco skyscraper. Would fit in fine with the Woolworth building and the rest of downtown.

32 posted on 01/22/2003 5:35:24 PM PST by Oschisms (Make it tall, no matter what)
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To: MadIvan
It looks a bit gaudy to me.
33 posted on 01/22/2003 5:37:03 PM PST by Contra
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To: KineticKitty
He even made it climb-able, LOL! More on it here: http://www.op.net/~jmeltzer/Gaudi/eltemple.html (It's still under construction.)

34 posted on 01/22/2003 5:37:48 PM PST by AnnaZ
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To: King Nothing
Build 'em just like they were!

I agree...I would re-build the WTC...It worked fine...looked good...looked American...


35 posted on 01/22/2003 5:39:35 PM PST by antaresequity
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To: MadIvan
This thing is uglier than a hickey on a hemorrhoid...
36 posted on 01/22/2003 5:40:25 PM PST by 76834
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To: MadIvan
ICK. It's not to late to hire John Edwards (the psychic) and have him channel some famous dead architects.
37 posted on 01/22/2003 5:41:13 PM PST by mewzilla
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To: Contra
Isn't the origin of the word 'gaudy' directly related to the overdone architectural style of Guadi?

Seems like I'd heard of that before.

38 posted on 01/22/2003 5:43:45 PM PST by keithtoo
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To: Oschisms
Well, the Twin Towers were the wrong look for the city, too.

No, not really. They could have been a little more interesting visually, but the correct "basics" were there---soaring height, clean lines, and slenderness instead of mass. THAT is what works here.

Thos stark skinny towers are looking downright graceful compared to every proposal I've seen so far.

39 posted on 01/22/2003 5:48:47 PM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: habs4ever
Yeah... this designer seems to be stuck on the phalic symbol. Maybe Hillary had some influence in the design, not getting any of the real thing and all she's probably thinking of those wuite often. Either that or Janet Reno.
40 posted on 01/22/2003 5:49:21 PM PST by 69ConvertibleFirebird
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