World Trade Center finalists feature world's tallest buildings

By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two plans featuring structures that would rise taller than any other in the world have been picked as finalists in the selection of a design to rebuild the World Trade Center, officials said Tuesday.

One proposal evokes the original trade center with twin latticework towers, while the other preserves the foundations of the twin skyscrapers.

The selection of the designs was announced Tuesday afternoon by officials from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency overseeing the redevelopment of the site, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that owned the trade center.

"These designs best satisfied the rigorous set of criteria that we set forth," said Roland Betts, head of the LMDC's planning committee.

Both finalist designs -- by an architectural team known as THINK and by Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind -- feature structures rising higher than the tallest in the world, Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers.

The World Trade Center's twin towers measured 1,350 feet.

The THINK team, led by New York-based architects Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz, proposed the World Cultural Center, whose lacy 1,665-foot towers have been called 21st-century Eiffel Towers.

Libeskind, who designed Berlin's Jewish Museum, proposed starkly geometrical buildings clustered around the foundations of the fallen towers and topped by a 1,776-foot spire.

Although both finalists include soaring structures, neither plan conceives of office space extending all the way to the top.

The models each include a vision for where the victims' memorial might be built. A specific design for the memorial is expected to be chosen later this year in a separate competition. Nearly 2,800 people were killed in the attack on the trade center Sept. 11, 2001.

Spokesmen for the two finalists did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The two finalists were among nine proposals for redeveloping the 16-acre World Trade Center site that were unveiled Dec. 18. The plans were selected from 407 submissions from around the world. One of the nine semifinalist designs was later withdrawn.

An earlier group of proposed designs, released in July, was criticized as boring and overstuffed with office space.

While no one expects an exact replica of either of the finalists to rise at the site, officials at the development corporation have said whatever is built there will be based on one of the plans.

Recurring turf battles over control of the site may complicate the decision-making, though.

Developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease to the trade center site, complained in a letter to development corporation chairman John Whitehead last week that the proposed designs do not include enough office space.

I prefer the first one, the second is fugly.

Then I don't like that one either. That is clutter, and I would hate for anyone to have to look at that on a daily basis.

I guess it can be said I now don't like either one of them. Though, if the first one didn't have all that gunk on the ground, I would like it just fine.

Libeskind, who designed Berlin's Jewish Museum, proposed starkly geometrical buildings clustered around the foundations of the fallen towers and topped by a 1,776-foot spire.

One thing to note... they will have to have FULL-SCALE military security around the joint at all times... re-building the towers is an invitation to terrorism.

IceNine said:

Yeah, that's why I was against the skyscrapers. This would have been a wonderful opportunity to reconsider the use of space in this high population area without having to create fortresses. Some of the previous design did that.

I guess many people see that as cowardly or something, but it's smart.

The THINK team, led by New York-based architects Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz, proposed the World Cultural Center, whose lacy 1,665-foot towers have been called 21st-century Eiffel Towers.

Man, I don't like either of em. What is it with arrogant architects and their incessent need to inflict tons of glass, exposed metal girders etc on everyone? I don't think those mockups look particularly attractive. The original towers looked nicer.

I feel they should either replace the twin towers properly - exactly, so the skyline of NY is restored, or else avoid the big tower idea altogether and go for something nice and flat. How about a nice garden?

I think it should be some sort of memorial...not a monumental one, but perhaps like the Vietnam Memorial...with the names of all the victims. This could be built within a park.