# The new WTC - Rebuild the damn towers! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 22, 2002, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155 "2002-07-22T01:51:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/21 "2002-07-24T03:32:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BeatenMan \* > \*\*I don’t think we should rebuild the towers. I feel we need to have a place to cry and let the terrorists know how much they hurt us. Surely if we build a place to cry at, we can show the terrorists just how hard we can cry and just how mean they really are. Yup when those terrorists see me cry, that will show them. \*\* That is the most appropriate comment/username combination that I have ever seen. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/22 "2002-07-24T03:40:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Several reasons not to rebuild the towers as they were, some of which have been mentioned above: > > • The ecomony is not the same as it was in the late 1960s; NYC does not need (and could not fill) that much office space downtown. > > • They really _were_ ugly. Though, having looked at the new proposals, I am disappointed that no one could come up with something better than the generic Atlanta/Dallas/Los Angeles boxes they did. > > • Who _would_ want to rent on the upper floors?! > > • Cities change. If we’re going to “rebuold Manhattan as it used to be,” I’m all for tearing down the Empire State Building and putting the old Astor farm back up as it was in the 1840s. \*\* 1. With rent in NYC being what it is, couldn’t they make some of the new building residential? I almost took a job in NYC once, but the rent prices made it a net loss for me. Anything to lower those prices… 1. Agreed. I’m in the Detroit area, and while 99% of this place is rather nasty, some of the old building downtown are great. (Chrysler Building, Fischer Building, etc.) Something a bit more creative then the old glass-rectangle would be nice. 2. I would love to live in a high rise, near the top. I worry about lots of things on a daily basis, but being stuck in tall building at bad times is not among them. Commercial-wise, who knows. I wonder if insurance rates are higher now in skyscrapers? ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/23 "2002-07-24T03:49:51Z")
IMHO the land is worth too much not to return it to commercial use. Of course, some sort of memorial on the location is in order. As previously stated, the market probably would not support that much office space, so the new building would have to be smaller than the WTC. Maybe a 40 story twin or thirty story tri-towers ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/24 "2002-07-24T03:54:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\* > We’ll get our $24 in beads back that way. \*\* I’m putting my whole 401K into beads. ---
**Author:** ![d12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/71c47a/32.png) [@d12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d12)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/25 "2002-07-24T04:34:36Z")
Why don’t we just piss all over ground zero? I mean c’mon, it’s a memorial to those people who died. I’m pretty sure NYC can do without a couple blocks of office space. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/26 "2002-07-24T05:23:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTA \* > \*\*The natural solution, for me, would be to faithfully replicate the WTC on-site with open steel latticework ala the Eiffel tower. There could be an observation deck, a “hanging garden”, whatever. Plus radio and cell communication relay equipment, special lighting, whatever etc. This way the skyline could be restored, but with the sense of having a “phantom limb”. > \*\* Wow. That would be pretty cool, but it won’t happen. The area is too valuable for just a memorial site and businesses won’t go for it. Still, it makes me shiver (in a good way). **d12** , I hope that you are refering to metaphorical “piss.” The concept of a giant park over Ground Zero (there is no way that leaving a giant crater will go over) along with RTA’s idea would be just like the Eiffel Tower area and very cool, but, again the area is too valuable. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/27 "2002-07-24T06:09:48Z")
Imagine if after the 1906 earthquake, they decided to turn all of San Francisco into a memorial park. Imagine if they decided not to build in Tokyo to memorilize the firebombing in WWII. We need to remember, but remembering doesn’t have to involve vast amounts of space. Great cities build on their past by incorporating their triumphs and disasters into their present and future, not by meeting the dead with dead space. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/28 "2002-07-24T06:56:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by d12 \* > \*\*Why don’t we just piss all over ground zero? I mean c’mon, it’s a memorial to those people who died. I’m pretty sure NYC can do without a couple blocks of office space. \*\* Yeah but do we really need what is essentially a plaque that is several city blocks square? That site is also one of the few places in Manhattan where the bedrock _can_ support tall buildings. It’s a geological imperative! Yes, the victims should always be remembered, but we also need to move on. ---
**Author:** ![AuntPam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@AuntPam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntPam)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/29 "2002-07-24T13:31:00Z")
I worked across the street. The footprints of the towers should be left as memorial gardens. There are STILL about 1600 families who have been given nothing–not one scrap of the physical remains of someone who was once daddy, mommy “my honeybunch”–to bury. They MUST have somewhere to mourn. As to the the rest of it–some years before 9/11 writer Donald Westlake referred to the Twin Towers as the final failure of architectural imagination. So almost anything else will be better. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/30 "2002-07-24T14:05:06Z")
“There are STILL about 1600 families who have been given nothing–not one scrap of the physical remains of someone who was once daddy, mommy “my honeybunch”–to bury. They MUST have somewhere to mourn.” —It’s going to be very hard not to come off as uncaring . . . But this is a pretty modern concept. Look at all the millions who lost loved ones in wars, shipwrecks, plagues, concentration camps, etc., over the past millennium, and never had “something to mourn.” Yes, it _is_ necessary to have some kind of memorial at the WTC site for people to gather at—all the plans include that. But, as I said earlier, NYC (and all major cities) are built atop hundreds of years of graveyards. If we marked off as a memorial every site where a revolution or massacre or plague occured, no cities would ever be built, anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/31 "2002-07-24T14:17:17Z")
> [@](#): > > But, as I said earlier, NYC (and all major cities) are built atop hundreds of years of graveyards. Not quite all major cities: according to a documentary I saw a few years ago, almost all of London’s parks are the sites of mass graves (‘plague pits’) constructed at the times of the Black Death and the Great Plague. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/32 "2002-07-24T19:35:54Z")
Everyone might find this website to be of interest: [http://www.wtc2002.com/](http://www.wtc2002.com/) ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/33 "2002-07-24T21:20:05Z")
Read your link, **Lord Ashtar.** Interesting concept. One question: the link asserts that the tower will have an “external security system” that will use “Sound Waves” to “repel” flying objects threatening the building. Is there any such technology, or are they loco? Sua ---
**Author:** ![Anubis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/34 "2002-07-24T21:28:08Z")
Make one big building about half as tall as the towers were but wider, dye the glass and stuff so that a giant American flag is on one side, and on the other side put all the flags of all the countries in the world. And just outside of it, make a wall with the victim’s names on it, kinda like the Vietnam one. Just my sappy patriotic idea. ---
**Author:** ![fallom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@fallom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fallom)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/35 "2002-07-24T22:00:44Z")
Yeesh, why dont we just make a giant tacky flag with neon lights, and have a speaker play “God Bless America” at 200 decibels 24 hours a day. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![epolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@epolo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epolo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/36 "2002-07-24T22:14:21Z")
Since noone’s put up the link to the official redevelopment site, I thought I’d throw it in here before I go home. [http://www.renewnyc.org/concepts.htm](http://www.renewnyc.org/concepts.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/37 "2002-07-24T23:27:13Z")
That proposal is super cool, except they’re a little loopy on security measures. Iris, retinal, 3d body scans, and fingerprinting for everybody entering the complex? Give me a break. ---
**Author:** ![taklon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@taklon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taklon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/38 "2002-07-28T11:54:17Z")
A wound won’t heal if you pick at it, and a memorial means nothing if it’s just a place to meet you date. No-one will forget, time to move on folks. Rebuild. ---
**Author:** ![alibey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@alibey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alibey)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/39 "2002-07-28T13:42:59Z")
People died at the Pentagon and it is being rebuilt, so why can’t people stop thinking of the WTC sight as something that it is not and start thinking of it for what it is. A war zone. Rebuild the bloody towers. They rebuilt Pearl Harbor after that attack so why not the WTC? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155/40 "2002-07-28T13:51:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SuaSponte \* > \*\*Read your link, **Lord Ashtar.** Interesting concept. > > One question: the link asserts that the tower will have an “external security system” that will use “Sound Waves” to “repel” flying objects threatening the building. > > Is there any such technology, or are they loco? > > Sua \*\* Loco. Publicity stunt with no basis in existing technology. There was a thread about this recently – One idea that quite appealed to me was allegedly proposed by Salman Rushdie, and then championed by another person. It involves building two towers on the site, taller than the previous ones, and open to business. The memorial would be formed by making the top forty or so floors on each building giant glass atriums. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-wtc-rebuild-the-damn-towers/120155.md?page=3)