[OESY]

Above an impregnable 200-foot concrete and steel pedestal would rise office floors topped by a restaurant and observation decks.



The new design for the 77-story Freedom Tower features a pinstripe facade, centered antenna and proportions that evoke the Twin Towers.



An antenna within a trellis-like sculpture would bring the structure to the symbolic total height of 1,776 feet, one of the few elements left intact from the building first envisioned in 2002 by the architect Daniel Libeskind, the site's master planner.



The enormous, largely windowless pedestal, added after the New York Police Department insisted the building be more resistant to car and truck bombs, would overlook the Sept. 11 memorial.



The main shaft of the Freedom Tower would begin as a 200-by-200-foot square. As it rose, the corners would be cut away, creating an octagonal floor plan through the middle of the building.



"I feel better about this than the original," said the building's chief architect, David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. "The building is simpler, architecturally. It is unique, yet it subtly recalls, in the sky, the tragedy that has happened here."







Facelift gone terribly wrong, or public reaction to the "new" Twin Towers?

[xcamel]

Happy, Dopy, Sleazy, Grumpy, and Scumbag.

[cvq3842]

I dunno. I liked Trump's design.

[Leo Carpathian]

"It has some really ingenious safety features. For example, the state offices will be in the silvery fortified base."

Like: Rest of you slobs will be unfortified above them?

[JOE6PAK]

Can they dock blimps on top?

[Muzzle_em]

I'm all for rebuilding it and I think it will be awesome.
It sickens me, however, to know our enemies will have GREAT resolve to destroy the newly built one. I know I would not work in that new building!

[eyespysomething]

an impregnable 200-foot concrete and steel pedestal

That sentence reminds me of an 'unsinkable' Titanic.

[JOE6PAK]

Why not pack a Saturn 5 rocket inside the base. If trouble comes, Just blast off to safty!

[stop_fascism]

Has SMO ever done a great (or even good) building? They're the McDonald's of architecture.

[ScreamingFist]

Well, I like it....nice lines and the view from the observation deck would be awesome.

[Hat-Trick]

I'm more concerned by the "Cultural Center" and it's contents on the sacred ground where our innocent fellow citizens were murdered by the jihadist pigs than I am about the design of the new tower.

[Right_at_RiceU]

Haha, I love how its 1776 feet tall.

[AbeKrieger]

WHy is Libeskind still in the picture? That liberal weenie was responsible for that last horrific building with it's friendly air turbines, plants, whatever. Let him go design some museum in San Francisco or Paris and leave the capitalists alone.

[greylurker]

did anyone notice how the article linked on Drudge references a Nazi achitect?
Appraisal: Fear in a soaring tower
By Nicolai Ouroussoff The New York Times
snip
But if this is a potentially fascinating work of architecture, it is, sadly, fascinating in the way that Albert Speer's architectural nightmares were fascinating - as expressions of the values of a particular time and era. The Freedom Tower embodies, in its way, a world shaped by fear.
end snip

[Chode]

i still say we should rebuild BOTH towers, but... this is a VAST improvement over that fagot assed design back in 2003 with it's "Open Air Structure" as a perfect example of a complete WASTE of space and materials!!!

[montag813]

This building is totally unremarkable. It shows no imagination whatsoever. Look at the innovative structures being put up in Asia and the Emirates to see how Western architecture is truly dead. This faggot Liebskind is an amateur.

[OESY]

The International Freedom Center: Understanding P.C.


The plans for Ground Zero give prominent position to a cultural center dedicated to telling the story of man's march toward freedom as an inspirational complement to the all-important memorial to those who died. But this International Freedom Center now faces challenge as a wholly inappropriate use of hallowed ground.
An organization representing families of some 9/11 victims yesterday joined calls for the Freedom Center to be removed as the primary gateway to, and a highly visible presence on, the 4 acres where stood the twin towers. The center, it is feared, is slated to become a platform for propaganda and for debating contentious issues that have, at best, a tenuous connection to the worst attack ever on American soil.
— Daily News (New York), 6/21/05


[Through the kind offices of a friend at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, I have gained access to some draft discussion plans for the proposed International Freedom Center. The following are extracts from a fictional document titled “Outline Design Specification, IFC — Provisional (incomplete).” I am glad to be able to share them with NRO readers. — J.D. ]



Main Entrance Lobby

Lobby centerpiece: Large statue, a group of semi-abstract human figures, suggesting a striving upwards, perhaps all with arms uplifted. The figures to include some identifiable features such as: slave manacles (broken), Native American feathered headdress, Muslim turban, campesino hat, etc.

Wall inscription: Sth. inspirational from non-slave-owning Founder or similar — Tom Paine?

Tape loop: “Welcome to the International Freedom Center, here on the site where once stood the World Trade Center. Here you will find a celebration of freedom, as the word has been understood — yet its spirit all too often violated or ignored — in the modern world. The tragedy of 9/11 was a blow against the freedom that we Americans claim to cherish. Yet our own attitude to freedom has been full of contradictions, as these exhibits will demonstrate…”


Hall of Economic Freedom

(Originally proposed thus. AR suggests change to: Hall of Freedom from Want.)

Centerpiece: Full-size statue appropriate to theme — labor hero? How about Joe Hill?

Big wall photo at left: Workers in 19C textile mill, pref. children. Continues to: Same size pics, coal mine, steel mill.

Big wall photo at right: Agricultural workers — ragged etc., pref. 19C. Continues to: Sth. similarly nonindustrial — whale fishing? (Check w. PETA for acceptability.)

Tape loop: “The first of all freedoms is the freedom from want. Yet our nation, which prides itself on its devotion to freedom, has been sadly backward in establishing this most basic of all freedoms. For all the abundance of our society, even today children go to bed hungry in the United States. Even today, working Americans cannot afford health insurance. Even today, while nations such as Cuba have achieved one hundred per cent literacy and full, free access to health care…”


Hall of Sexual and Reproductive Freedom

Centerpiece: Statue group, woman in business suit, briefcase, etc., two gay men holding hands — all striding confidently to radiant future. One of the 3 figures should be African American, doesn’t matter which. Can we do Hispanic in statuary? Without campesino hat? If not, oriental.

Big wall photo at left: Sth. from 19C showing haggard-looking woman with large brood of children outside hovel. Continues to: Gay-rights martyrs — von Katte, Wilde of course, Turing,… Big text block narrating Wilde case superimposed. Lesbian martyrs? Check w. CP.

Mural at right wall: Montage of great figures & episodes from history of sexual etc. freedom: Sade, Hirschfeld, Margaret Sanger, suffragettes, Kinsey, Roe vs. Wade justices (exc. White, Rehnquist), Stonewall demos etc. TB’s suggestion to work abortion doctor in can’t be done, wd. have to show instruments, best go with picture of clinic, pref. one in picturesque setting.

Tape loop: “For centuries American women were second-class citizens, lacking the right to vote, barred from the professions, expected to produce a baby a year until their frail bodies were worn out…”


Hall of Ethnic Freedom

Centerpiece: Large statue group — Manacled slaves, Trail of Tears, interned Japanese family, Chinese railroad coolie… May need to be half size, lotsa possible figures here.

Mural at left wall: Montage of images showing sufferings under racism: slavery, internment, lynching, Chicano farm workers, etc. Continues to: Protests — Wounded Knee, march on Montgomery,…

Mural at right wall: Heros portrayed — Chavez, MLK, etc. [Who for Japanese? Mineta? And KD suggests Vincent Chin — who he?]

Tape loop: “America’s past treatment of non-white citizens is a 300-year catalog of shame…”


Hall of Artistic Freedom

Centerpiece: Completely abstract culture vaguely suggesting uplift, aspiration.

Big wall photo at left: McCarthy hearings, 1st Amendment ironically superimposed. Continues to: Montage of blacklisted screenwriters etc., w. notes on subsequent fate, esp. suicides. (Can we get Giuliani in here? — the Brooklyn Museum business?)

Mural at right: Montage of controversial art — Jackson Pollock, “Piss Christ,” etc. (“Mapplethorpe prob. too strong” — AR.) “Angels in America” angel v. photogenic, says RT.

Tape loop: Still in disagreement here. RT wants pitch for PBS, JS insists reading of “Vagina monologues.” Shd. make decision soonest.


Hall of Religious Freedom

(NB1: Need great care here with religious symbols — MUST BE ALL SAME SIZE EXACTLY — else 1st Amendment issues.)

(NB2: Research on symbols not yet complete. Wiccans use pentacle inscribed in circle. For Hindus we shd. show one of less threatening gods, pref. many arms. Ch. of Scientology still not responding emails.)

Centerpiece: Good multi-culti statue group — turban, yarmulke, robed monk, etc.

Mural at left wall: Montage of images — religious buildings, worshippers, etc. Mosque prominent at center. Crowd scenes at Ganges festivals, Ka’aba, etc. Big head shot Dalai Lama. Continues to: Images of religious persecution — Salem burnings, Orange Riots, Holocaust. [Did RT have any luck finding images of Muslims beaten post-9/11? Wd. be real neat.]

Big photo at right: TBD.

Tape loop: “Following the unfortunate events of September 11, 2001, Muslims in America suffered suspicion and discrimination…”

-- nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire200506300935.asp

[Antoninus]

Much better than the original pile 'o cr@p.