New WTC plan is taller than twin towers
Wednesday, February 26, 2003 Posted: 10:35 PM EST
(0335 GMT)
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The winning plan, shown in an
architect's model, includes a 1,776-foot spire.
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PLAN ELEMENTS |
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1,776 foot (541m) spire with gardens above the 70th floor
Leaves part of the World Trade Center foundation exposed as part
of memorial
7.5 million square feet of office space
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NEW YORK (AP) -- A
complex of angular buildings and a 1,776-foot spire designed by architect Daniel
Libeskind was chosen as the plan for the World Trade Center site on Wednesday,
The Associated Press has learned.
Libeskind's design beat the THINK team's "World Cultural Center" plan, which
envisioned two 1,665-foot latticework towers straddling the footprints of the
original towers.
The new building is planned to be taller than the trade center towers, which
briefly stood as the world's tallest at 1,350 feet. Libeskind's tower also would
surpass Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the
world.
The choice was made by a committee with representatives of the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey, the governor and the mayor. The committee met briefly on Wednesday
afternoon and decided on the plan that was favored by Gov. George Pataki and
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to a source close to the process.
LMDC Chairman John Whitehead telephoned Libeskind with the news, the source
said, telling the architect that his "vision has brought hope and inspiration to
a city still recovering from a terrible tragedy."
Libeskind told the chairman that being selected is "a life-changing
experience," the source said.
Nine proposals for redeveloping the trade center site, where nearly 2,800
people died September 11, 2001, were unveiled December 18. The design
competition was launched after an initial set of plans, released in July, was
derided as boring and overstuffed with office space.
Redevelopment officials were scheduled to announce the decision publicly
Thursday.
After the two plans were chosen as finalists earlier this month, both teams
of architects were asked to revise their designs to make them more easily
realized.
Libeskind, whose original design called for a memorial at the trade center
foundation 70-feet below ground, reportedly changed that to 30 feet, allowing
for infrastructure and transportation underneath.
The LMDC was created by Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani after
September 11 to oversee the rebuilding of the trade center site and downtown
Manhattan. The Port Authority owns the site.
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