The Deconstruction of the WTC Master Plan

Privately, several architects involved at ground zero have been exploring ways to improve the master plan. Long before the security concerns were raised, some had toyed with the notion of moving the Freedom Tower to the east side of the site and creating a smaller commercial structure at its current location on the site's northwest corner. This would create a stronger visual dialogue between the various commercial towers at ground zero and the World Financial Center.

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Others have proposed moving one of the cultural buildings to the site's southwest corner, which would help shield the memorial from West Street and make it feel more intimate. An even more radical idea - a riff on one of Mr. Libeskind's proposals - would be to relocate all of the cultural institutions in the base of the towers, freeing up room for a much bigger public park. This might help cover the costs of the site's cultural components and ensure that they remain a strong part of the program.

Of course, these are simply mental exercises, a way of exploring how the project could be set on the right track. But the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has steadfastly refused to open up discussion on the site's overall organization. Not only has it sought to prevent the architects from speaking publicly about their ideas, according to several architects interviewed, but it has also warned them against sharing their ideas with one another, saying that this would be a breach of their confidentiality agreements.

As a result, the major architectural players at ground zero - Mr. Libeskind, Mr. Gehry, Santiago Calatrava, David Childs, Mr. Arad and the Snohetta architects, to name the most obvious - have never sat down in a room together to discuss their growing concerns about the overall plan, let alone exchange ideas about how best to improve it.

This constitutes an enormous squandering of talent, as well as a total disregard for how the creative process unfolds. And it has essentially shut the public out of the process.

So far, such inflexibility has been justified by political calculations. Open discussion of what isn't working, and why, might slow the pace of rebuilding, the thinking goes, and send the wrong message to the world - as if indecision were somehow a sign of weakness. Given how the project has stumbled, that argument is looking more and more specious. And it ignores the fact that the city, and those of us who care about it, will have to live with the consequences of these decisions for decades.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to discuss is that there are too many items and buildings for the space, regardless of how many office buildings are built on the site. Minoru Yamazaki realized this when building the original towers. Too many lower towers will needlessly crowd the space and make it feel claustriphobic. It would cramp the memorial gardens and open spaces, all while reducing the overall amount of space for those gardens.

While it might be a good idea to get all the designers and architects into a room together from time to time, the site has already seen too many cooks spoiling this particular plan. It may be time to realize that Libeskind was not an appropriate choice, especially since it is his signature item, the Freedom Tower that has caused the most problems based on siting and logistics thus far.

Reopening the design process from scratch might not be an option, but reconsidering the finalists in light of what we have seen thus far might be a viable option. Spending a few weeks or months reevaluating the plans could prove invaluable if it produces a far better product than we see thus far.

This is still a job that can be done, but the political willpower of Gov. Pataki appears nonexistent; he has the prime political power to push the plan (whatever plan it turns out to be) along. His failure to get things moving will ultimately be his downfall in the fall elections. Also, the failure to get something built downtown will affect the mayoral elections, as some of Mayor Bloomberg's political opponents are striking at him, despite the fact that the Mayor has little control over what happens at Ground Zero, except to use the bully pulpit to prod the other players (PANY/NJ, MTA, Governor, Silverstein, etc.).