Since the “World Trade Center” thread has been hijacked by some weird personal argument I don’t much care about, I decided not to post this there and start this here.
Obviously, the people behind the mass murders in NY, DC and Pennsylvania must be hunted down and killed like dogs. Should it be found that a state is assisting or harboring them, they must be punished in a devastating and merciless manner. The world’s democracies must step up their devotion to the anti-terrorist cause, and from now on the response to terrorism must be much more severe than ever before. We all agree on these things - they’re self-defense.
But while everyone is talking about exacting revenge in blood and fire, isn’t there something we’re forgetting? Once the rubble is cleaned up and the dead buried, I think a key “fuck you,” an absolutely critical move, is to rebuild the World Trade Center. Except this time they have to build it even bigger. Maybe with three towers instead of two. Yes; three monstrous 1500-foot towers, the most immense office towers ever constructed.
What better why to tell the filth who did this to go fuck themselves? You can bomb and slaughter as many as you want, but is there really any better way to show their hideous aims will fail than to just build the WTC bigger and better than before? That says, “You can knock these things down, but we’re just going to build bigger ones. We can do that because we’ve built a society based on civilized behaviour and the rule of law that gives us the resources to build things like that. Go ahead and blow stuff up; we’ll just build bigger stuff right after we’ve killed you. Nothing you can do will stop us from creating magnificent things and enjoying them.”
That, folks, is what must happen. Fuck them. Let’s build the WTC again. Who do I send my donation to?
I firmly agree 100%. Rebuilding is essential. If we turn the plaza into a park or memorial as some on the radio have suggested, it’ll give the appearance that the terrorists have won. I like your “three towers” idea, and we should make 'em the tallest in the world. And put a few memorial statues to the victims and the heros (like the firefighters). But we have to go on…
Sadly, though, I think that you and I are gonna be outvoted by the “a park would be a nice tribute” crowd.
I was trying to decide whether a park or more buildings would work better–But I decided on the buildings. Put a memorial plaque on them or something. Do something nice in Central Park. But, Damnitt! We are the US of A! We build our buildings big, and tall and plentiful. You knock them down, and by golly, they will stand right back up again!
I had also considered three towers, but the site may not have the space for three huge towers. OTOH, we could put two towers back in place, one at the old height, and the second maybe a couple hundred feet higher. The mis-matched height can act as the memorial, while the taller tower might also be considered as a giant “fuck-you” finger to those that think mass-murder is an acceptable political tactic.
Mayor Guliani gave a press conference about an hour ago. He said (I’m paraphrasing) “There is no doubt we will rebuild. The form will be up to the guys who know about those things. New York City will be whole again.”
I wonder how many corporations would even want to take up office space in the new building after the events that just happened. I know I wouldn’t feel too comfortable working in the new WTC!!!
Or have three towers total: two ‘symbolic’ towers that are short and cylindrical in shape, and the third (in the middle, of course), cylindrial and TALL.
Think something along the lines of: .|. (Fitting in two more towers, to bring the total up to five would probably be impractical because of land constraints.) …|… Hmm. Dunno how well those pitiful ASCII ‘drawnings’ will help illustrate my idea.
You can think of it as either a nice big phallic symbol, or if you get the proportions done better, one nice big giant ‘fuck you’ being flipped off. Or both.
The two ‘symbolic’ towers would stand as the memorial, the third would be the ‘functional’ one with office space, etc.
I 100% agree with rebuilding the WTC, even as an unoccupied memorial. We can rebuild it to withstand a plance crash, and place anti-aircraft guns on top.
I like the three taller towers idea too. Just to say . .“Look you aholes, there’s more!” Make 'em 2000 feet high!
I can think of three right off the top of my head. I’ve heard from friends and the various others that I know who worked in the WTC (who were either lucky enough to work low in the building, or in two cases, who worked high in the towers, but were late for work), and in those cases where I thought to ask, they all said “yes” to working in a new WTC.
Well, if they wanted it, I would cheerfully mail NYC or the Feds my $300 for such an effort. And NIGHTSONG, my friend last night also said it should be built to look like a big extended middle finger facing east.
Thats the spirit I wanted to see. BIG. Taller, grander, prettier. Richer.
Obviously, it really must be three towers. New WTC’s 1, 2 and 3 should be arranged in such a manner that they’re square towers like before, but facing away from each other in a circle. Imagine each one having one side facing in, so all three are arranged at 120-degree points on a compass. In the middle, in a park that would almost always be in shade, you could have a memorial. The memorial should be simple and tasteful, with a small fountain that runs all day except between 8:48 and 9:06 AM. The names of every victim should be carefully inscribed upon it.
I don’t think they should be cylindrical. I think they should be square and straight, just like before. And as a tribute to the old center, they should appear more or less identical. And the towers should be frickin’ HUGE. Taller than before. 2000 feet.
I doubt that the towers will be rebuilt taller than before, or even as tall as they were before. For one, construction on that scale is ridiculously expensive these days. For another, putting up taller and taller buildings is for countries emerging onto the world stage, as a sort of “look what we can do!” to the rest of the world. The US is long past that.
In addition, the trade center towers were criticized as being, well, ugly. They jutted out from the end of Manhattan in stark contrast with the rest of the area, and they were rather bland black-grey boxes. Compared to the Empire State Building’s gently-rising tiers, they just weren’t pretty.
So, yeah, something will be rebuilt, because the area needs the office space. When they were first built, of course, they created so much office space that, I understand, rush hour became nightmaring and the area became a ghost town after 5 PM. Now that Manhattan was used to that office space, though, they’ll need it back. A series of smaller towers would fit the bill better, I think, than more super-towers.
While a park or memorial would be nice, realistically we have to remember that this is prime Manhattan real estate we’re talking about. The city can’t afford to use the space for something non-utilitarian.
RickJay, I realize it’s early to speculate, but the names of the victims of this could rival the Vietnam Wall in number. That’s bloody staggering…
Nice plans. I like the way that shapes up in my mind’s eye. Please bear in mind, however, that there’s only so much weight you can place on the site. The substrate is, IIRC, clay, and the old structure (God, that feels so strange, referring to the WTC in the past-tense) was built on a raft-like structure of interconnected pilings and foundations. Building three enourmous towers may be more than the site can support, unless surrounding buildings are also taken down, to permit the load to be spread over a larger area.
If anyone here is a Babylon 5 fan, there is a moment in the pilot when the Minbari ambassador asks Commander Sinclair “Why Babylon 5?” She wants to know why, since the previous four were destroyed during building(by forces who didn’t want a place for interstellar trade and understanding) that Earth went ahead and built a fifth station. Sinclair tells her that, if it’s important, we do it because humanity keeps doing something till we get it right, no matter how hard it is. We don’t let others get us down. So I would be in favor of rebuilding, because we won’t let the terrorists win.
I think one giant Phalic tower out of hardened re-enforced concrete. Make it huge, and indestructable. Build it to withstand a bomb/airplane/freeking asteroid strike. Mount guns on it.
Or perhaps not. Making it “Indestructable” would make it even a bigger target.
I agree that the WTC should be rebuilt as the worlds tallest buildings and that there should be some sort of public memorial included. Just please don’t build the same design.
Cute.