Don't Blame the Architects(Ground Zero Schemes Review by a fabulous critic)

WSJ ^ | 1/7/03 | ada louise hi=uxtable

[finnman69]

Don't Blame the Architects The Ground Zero redesign proposals show how skillfully and elegantly the wrong thing can be done.

BY ADA LOUISE HUXTABLE Tuesday, January 7, 2003 12:01 a.m.

NEW YORK--The crowds viewing the second round of designs for the World Trade Center site on display in the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center are as international as the seven teams of architects who have produced them. The interest is global, and the spotlight is on how this extraordinary coalition of the world's most celebrated and innovative talents, commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. after the earlier design debacle, proposes to heal the shattering wounds to New York's fabric and psyche suffered on 9/11. The conceptual daring and advanced technology of these schemes--the sheer drama of their bold images--brings cutting-edge creativity to New York, where it is long overdue. Buildings like these have already changed skylines from London to Hong Kong. This is the architecture of the 21st century, and about as good as it gets.

[finnman69]

Ada Louise Huxtable is an old NY Times architecture critic but don't let that fool you. She is an excellent critic, a realist, a pragmatist and has a gifted eye and understanding of what makes architecture successful. Most impostantly, she also understands New York.

Personally I don't like the Liebskind scheme with the exposed walls. For the same reason she said NYers don't walk up or down a few steps to a public plaza, leaving the memorial at the bottom of the excavated pit is a huge mistake.

[widowithfoursons]

Wher is Mr. Roark when we need him? (Calling Ayn Rand!)

[finnman69]

Here is another interesting article today regardin creating a tomb or cememtary somewhere at ground zero for unidentified victims.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/28121.htm

'FINAL RESTING PLACE'

By WILLIAM NEUMAN and Associated Press

January 9, 2003 -- A permanent Ground Zero memorial should include a "final resting place" for the unidentified remains of the terror-attack victims and a private area for relatives of the dead, according to proposed guidelines released yesterday.
A competition to choose a memorial design will begin by April, but many details remain undecided - especially the composition of the jury that will pick the winner.

Gov. Pataki, in his State of the State Address yesterday, reiterated a promise to "preserve the footprints of the towers forever."

The new guidelines were written by two committees of victims' relatives, architects and local residents brought together by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

The guidelines, which will be discussed at a public hearing next week, say the memorial should:

* "Recognize" each victim of the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and those who died in the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

* "Make visible the footprints" of the towers.

* Include a "space to serve as a final resting place for the unidentified remains."

* Include "a visitor area" for WTC families.

The guidelines do not say where the memorial should be located or how large it should be and do not address the concerns of many family members that the entire "bathtub" area be set aside.

*

The following names have been added to the medical examiner's list of confirmed dead in the World Trade Center attacks:

Gavkharoy Kamardlnova, 26; Michael Theodorldis, 32; Robert Anthony Vicario, 40.

*

The massive effort to identify World Trade Center victims' remains will not wrap up early this year as city officials had predicted, but is likely to continue for years, according to the scientist leading the unprecedented DNA project.

Dr. Robert Shaler, the city's chief forensic biologist, said yesterday he still hopes to reach a goal of 2,000 identifications out of the nearly 2,800 believed lost in the terrorist atrocity. But Shaler said he expects those are more likely to come in small batches as technicians struggle to work with damaged DNA.

After a steady decline in identifications in recent months, an unexpected DNA breakthrough has yielded several new matches and could lead to more.

Of the 2,792 people listed as missing in the attack, the remains of only 1,452 have been identified - about 52 percent.

[KellyAdmirer]

I saw the proposals at the Winter Garden last week and was tremendously underwhelmed. Others there at the time did not seem impressed, either. The designs looked like first drafts in a college competition.

[ELS]

ping

[demosthenes the elder]

somebody PLEASE either send me the WTC plot dimensions and orientation, or direct me to a source where I can find this information.
I have a (IMO) nifty tower design that I'd like to put forth to FR et alia.

[ffusco]

Enright House or The Banner Tower?

[Billy_bob_bob]

I'm certainly open to new proposals, but the Peterson/Littenberg design strikes me as the best balanced, most realistic and most livable design that I've seen presented. The Libeskind design does nothing for me, it strikes me as grandiose and sterile. The United Architects design reminds me of bad sixties drug influence, although I do like the interconnectedness of their buildings. Too bad they look so much like a field of square sea worms popping up to feed.

I do believe that if the Peterson/Littenberg plan is used that eventually everybody will decide that they either like it or that, at the least, it's not so bad. I think it's a really nice design, if you have not yet checked out the full presentation on it you should.

[WaveThatFlag]

Give the "Final Resting Place" idea the award for "Creepiest Design To Date." I can just see it now: Tourist getting their picture snapped in front of a mass grave on their way to the Liberty Island Ferry.

Build 'em again. Taller.

[finnman69]

I'm planning on checking them out in person myself next week.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the ping.

And on a slightly different note, thank God they are not going to build that Whitney Museum monstrosity on the East River where Niew Amsterdam used to be.

Aren't there any good architects around anymore?

[John Locke]

Mr. Libeskind has done what he does superbly, like no one else, as anyone who has visited his Jewish Museum in Berlin knows

As to what this architect does "superbly", see for yourseves in the referenced article. Trust me, it's even worse when you actually stand on the Lindenstrasse and look at the thing for real.

[Billy_bob_bob]

I usually refrain from using vulgarities on this forum, but those buildings are f**king hideous. They are a damned nightmare made real in steel and glass. This architect is an ass, his "vision" is twisted and perverse. What a terrible, terrible structure. It just reeks of pretense and insolence, I believe "stinks on ice" would be a good summation of this travesty. I hope that this guy does not end up having his design used for the new WTC.

[widowithfoursons]

Was the name "Banner"? That would be the one.

[ffusco]

The Wynand Building I think.

[Mo1]

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[widowithfoursons]

Ah yes. Gail Wynand. A dude who finally saw the truth.