Wishful Thinking For Downtown

When one looks at the gaping pit in Lower Manhattan that was formerly the World Trade Center, one realizes the tremendous sense of loss that still hovers over the City. The Libeskind plan hasn't materialized, the Governor who holds the cards appears to fold at the worst times, the NYPD questions the safety of the Freedom Tower, no steel has been ordered for the construction, a self imposed deadline for finishing the tower will come and go because nothing has been accomplished on the Freedom Tower front, and the only sign of moving forward is the nearly completed 7 World Trade Center, which was built by Silverstein Properties separately from the rest of the site.

So, why are we in the mess we are in? It could be because the selection of the Libeskind plan was a spectacular failure. Libeskind's plan was unique. It was different. It was also proposed by a novice in building skyscrapers, and the whole point of developing the site was to build a replacement of one of the most recognizable skyscrapers in world history. We weren't talking about building a park, a museum, or a bunch of low-slung buildings.

Libeskind's chief fault is that he has absolutely no experience in building big. It was that failure that led to Silverstein demanding - and getting - his own architects involved in the process, in order to ensure that whatever was built was office space that was actually usable and whose floor plans were sufficient for future customers.

The 'partnership' was more like a shotgun wedding than a wedding in bliss. Libeskind and Childs (Silverstein's architect with the firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill) never got along, and the resulting Freedom Tower looks more like a mishmash of ideas than a coherent design.

It makes one wonder what would have happened if an internationally recognized skyscraper designer, such as Sir Norman Foster had won the master plan and been allowed to work on the site. I have to believe that the infighting would not have been as severe, and the skyscraper portion of the site would have been able to progress far more quickly than the current plans.

Foster's buildings including the Hearst Corporation's headquarters expansion in New York City, London's Gherkin (the Swiss Re headquarters) as well as the Kissing Towers plan show that Foster had an eye for aesthetics as well as commerical and practical considerations.

It is that lack of an eye for the aesthetics combined with the commercial and practical that has held up the building at Ground Zero.