I sincerely hope all of you are correct. I think it’s crucial from a policy standpoint as well as a tribute to the people who lost their lives to rebuild. But, sadly, I believe they won’t.
I suspect the place’ll be turned into a park to honor the victims, and with the best of intentions, the murderers will win a victory.
If it was up to me, we’d go Dave Stewart’s way and rebuild bigger and better, perhaps with a statue or two between the two buildings to honor the victims and another to honor the heroes. But I don’t think it’ll happen.
I heard that the architect for the WTC was an asian fellow who called Troy, Michigan home.
The reporter from CBS pulled out a quote of the architect stating (back when it was being built in the early 70’s) that the WTC was designed to withstand a hit of a large (707?) airplane.
The architect died ( I don’t know when, I suspect before the first WTC bombing) but what an awful awful feeling to know that one of your creations, world reknown and quite awe inspriring, would be brought down by two friggin commerical liners hitting it intently. That man had to be in a rare and morbid class, like the designers of the Titanic. ( Who, one of them, went down with the boat.)
As for the memorial, I was thinking about this all night.
To rebuild would be a testimony of the strength and character that is inherit of New Yorkers and Americans. But,
would you want to go into that building, work in that building, visit that building without feeling like a target or the spirits of all those that perished in this horrid tragedy?
One has to wonder what the folks in the Sears Tower and that huge building in Jakarta (?) which now claims to be the world’s tallest, feel this morning.
I was thinking about a park, akin to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, names of all the deceased ( with pictures to humanize it), trees as a symbol of life, and statues to commemorate the fire fighters and police that died so horribly in the line of duty.
Frankly, I don’t see how they could afford not to rebuild the thing, just from a financial and logistic standpoint. Those towers had more office space than downtown Miami.
I’m glad that somebody else asked this question as it had been running through my mind.
I think that two more towers get built (hopefully a nice post modern design) that will be the new worlds tallest. I can see the buildings themselves being momuments to the victims, but that a memorial that is more tangible would be included in the design.
The mayor just now said “There is no doubt that we will rebuild. What form will be left up to the guys who know about these things, but New York City will be whole again.”
I don’t know how I could have gone back to work at the World Trade Center, if it still stood. Just thinking about returning to work in a buiding on the site makes my heart race. But I too hope that it is rebuilt.
lno… Call them and see if you can be an apheresis donor. These people donate plasma or platelets, and the time between donations is about two days, versus 8 weeks.
I do think the plaza between the buildings should be re-dedicated to the victims with maybe an eternal flame or something. That’ll leave the rest of the area free to rebuild.
the towers did not fail because of the planes’ impact.
They fell because the heat was so intense, it melted the steel.
and with all due respect, the WTC can not be compared to the Titanic.
The Titanic sank because of :
inferior grade of materials (brittle stel)
poor design (Although the ship had very effective watertight doors separating the watertight compartments, the designers had not included watertight decks)
and
overconfidence.
it was a tragedy because there was a flagarent disregard for human lives.
I may be particularly sensitive to this (as I am an intern architect) so my appologies if I take you out of context,
but the Architect did everything in his power to create a building to withstand NORMAL (foreseeable) occurances. the designers of the Titanic did not.
I bet that the new WTC will be vastly different from the original.
On a lighter note, Angie and I got tired of the Tusday’s news so we switched to Animal Planet. Whenever they featured a baboon, I thought, “Is that a good news baboon or a bad news baboon?”
