Beyond the Trade Center Site
September 9th, 2008
A day before the seventh anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks rebuilding officials gathered this morning on the 52nd floor of 7 World Trade Center partly to look at how far Lower Manhattan has come, or not come, since that day.
In what could be seen as a bow to Gov. David Paterson’s demand for realism at — “We’re not going to give any phony dates or timetables and follow it up with phony ribbon-cuttings and encouraging words,” he has said — both Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber and Avi Schick, chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., admitted problems at ground zero. But they urged people to look beyond that.
Schick acknowledged the focus on what he repeatedly called “the 16-acre site,” but went on to say, “What’s truly amazing is the transformation Lower Manhattan has undergone since 9/11.
“Lower Manhattan has been rebuilt, reinvented and renewed into one of the most exciting neighborhoods we have in the five boroughs of New York City,” Lieber agreed, boasting of business, homes, shops, and culture. At the site, though, he conceded, there have been “unmeetable deadlines and unrealistic timetable.”
The next major step in rebuilding that site should come on Sept. 30 when the Port Authority is due to release its new budget and new timetable for construction.
Already conflicts loom over that timetable.
At the press briefing, Joe Daniels, president of the memorial foundation, said, as he has in the past, “It is both possible and essential for the memorial to be open to the public on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.” In late June, the head of the Port Authority had said the memorial would not open by that deadline.
Whatever the final deadline — and whether or not the Port Authority meets it — the memorial has moved one step closer to completion. At the briefing, the memorial foundation released the new design for the entrance to the memorial pavilion, the main above-ground portion of the memorial. Created by the Norwegian firm Snohetta, it will be a low horizontal building with an atrium and is intended to serve as a link between the memorial and the towers that also will — some day — occupy the trade center site.
For more on progress — or lack there of — at Ground Zero, come to Gotham Gazette tomorrow.
By Gail Robinson on September 9, 2008, 2:22 pmIn category: Gotham City, Land Use | 1 Comment »



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September 10th, 2008 at 8:04 am
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