NEW YORK, 11 September 2004 — The cornerstone of the new World Trade Center was placed on July 4, but the final plans for what will rise from Ground Zero are still not agreed and could take a decade to be carried out.
The lower Manhattan site, where the twin towers were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001 — killing 2,749 people — remains a giant hole.
A major achievement was the reopening of a subway station, so commuters can catch trains.
A glass building is going up nearby to replace a third tower that was torn down in the fallout of Sept. 11.
The Deutsche Bank building, which will have to be demolished, awaits the wrecking ball draped appropriately in a black tarp.
The complex replacing the World Trade Center, which does not yet have a name, will take shape in four to five years, architect Daniel Libeskind, the author of the new concept, said Tuesday.
“It’s been only a year and a half at work,” he said. “We made tremendous progress, it’s on track, and on schedule.”
The complex, which will cost $12 billion and will be finished by 2013, will include a victims’ memorial, two cultural centers and five office buildings, including Freedom Tower.
Freedom tower will be the tallest building in the world, at 1,776 feet (541 meters), a nod to the year the United States declared independence. It will have 65 floors. With its rooftop antenna, it will top 2,000 feet (600 meters).
Although New York State Governor George Pataki broke ground for the future skyscraper on July 4, the building will not be completed before 2008 or 2009.
Final plans for the victims’ memorial by young architect Michael Arad have yet to be agreed.
Several theater and dance companies have been selected to set up shop at the new site. But a choice of architects to design the future theaters has not been made.
“It’s not only buildings standing alone,” explained Libeskind. “It’s creating new streets, that will make the two shores accessible within a few minutes, it’s a new concentration of cultural activities, that will turn this area into a 24-hour area, something very different from what the World Trade Center was.”
However, the architect’s enthusiasm cannot conceal the bitter divisions that marked debates surrounding the project and which forced its partial revision.
It is difficult to balance the interests of families of the victims, some of whom oppose any rebuilding, politicians who would like to rebuild as soon as possible and real estate developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease to the site and who wants to recuperate the maximum amount of office space.
Libeskind, who was chosen in early 2003 by an international competition, learned how contested the design was when Silverstein appointed a co-architect, David Childs, who revised the Freedom Tower concept.
The controversy boiled over in July when Libeskind sued Silverstein to recover his fees.
Libeskind denied he is being marginalized and considers himself a coordinator who will bring all the elements of the project together.
“Stepping into this project has changed my life, it is unprecedented in history,” he said. “It’s a great project, it is also not easy, because of all these great forces, but I never thought of walking away from this project.”
“It’s hard every second, every minute there is a phone call, every minute there is pressure,” he continued. “But that’s how the world is, the world is under pressure. Life is not easy, but it was worth the struggle because the tower will be built.”
