A Towering Lack of Vision

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"A breathtaking determination to think small," "leaden," and "dreary" are just a few of the harsh words aimed at the six new proposals unveiled yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for rebuilding the World Trade Center site in New York. None of the plans restore Manhattan's wounded skyline to its former grandeur. These unimaginative proposals are unworthy of the world's premier city and suggest that America has been cowed by the threats of terrorists and a small-souled vision of commerce. These timorous collections of office buildings succeed brilliantly in not calling too much attention to themselves. Earlier, some architects had offered inspiring visions, including the construction of the world's tallest building on the site, but the dead hand of bureaucracy seems to have killed those ideas off.

All that the current plans do is tediously replace the 11 million square feet of office space and 600,000 square feet of retail space lost in the attack on the Twin Towers. The proposals do also incorporate various memorials to the nearly 3,000 Americans who lost their lives in the attacks, but with all due respect to the families who lost loved ones at the WTC, the best memorial to those murdered by terrorists would be to recreate downtown Manhattan as vibrant shining center of city life. In these cramped proposals, downtown would become a ghost town once the office denizens flee to the outer boroughs at quitting time.

By all means restore the lost office space if there is a market for it, but any decent plan must also include a lot of living, retail, and cultural space as well. Indeed why not pursue the successful development strategies used in many uptown towers in which commercial space occupies the lower stories while dramatic residences crown the upper floors? Finally, some grand structure at the site needs to be at least as tall as the lost 110-story World Trade Towers.

The LMDC Chairman, John Whitehead has asked for "ongoing input, feedback and recommendations of citizens here and throughout the country." Give it to him, I say.