The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 195

So, will the new WTC complex be more secure at ground level for pedestrians? Engineers and security experts are working on the problem and trying to bring a human scale to a complex that will include some of the tallest buildings in the world when construction is completed, but I think the move to restore the street grid through the complex undermines those efforts.

It must harmonize with a divergent environment in which expressive architects like Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry and Norman Foster have been asked to make their strongly individual marks.

It must do so on a broad scale. Liberty Park is described in the request as a “public gathering place having pathways, benches, landscaped areas, park lighting,” next to the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (whose members gathered yesterday on the site to celebrate the parish’s 90th anniversary).

And it must do so at a minute level of detail, taking account of Asian longhorn beetles and the Americans with Disabilities Act, presenting design options for streetlights, street trees, planters, grassy areas, benches, signs, paving, gutters and the sidewalk security posts known as bollards. Proposals are due Dec. 20.

“I don’t view this as an insurmountable task,” said Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., the executive director of the authority. “I think so much work has been done to this point, defining what people want the site to be.” Above all, he said, that means the memorial plaza, by far the largest public space in the project.

A new search of nearby buildings has determined that their rooftops are free of human remains. The search was ordered after remains were found in underground utility vaults that had been covered over in order to access the rest of the site during the recovery efforts.

The EPA is launching a final effort to check Lower Manhattan for toxic residue from the collapsing towers after years of criticism. The Daily News has more. The lowdown is that everyone hates the latest plan as being insufficient.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein, mount sinai, respiratory ailment, wtc cough, bloomberg.