New York’s WTC Site Unveiled

9 September 2006 | Category: Architecture Matters
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Three celebrity architects on September 7, 2006 unveiled designs for three new skyscrapers at the site destroyed by the September 11 attacks, giving the world its first comprehensive look at how the rebuilt World Trade Center will look.

Norman Foster’s building is the most unique among all, it appears to be a cluster of four diamond shaped towers with the top chipped of at an angle. Richard Roger’s tower is distinguished by diagonal exterior supports and topped by four functional antennae. On the other hand, Japan’s Fumihiko Maki’s building is the shortest, evoking the looks and feel of the old Twin Towers. Their architectural teams collaborated so that the designs, while distinct, would be harmonious. The buildings conform to a general master plan by Daniel Libeskind.

Personally, I prefer the Richard Roger’s design the most. The tower somehow reminds me of the Shanghai World Financial Centre, standing at 460 metres.

The 11 September attacks, in which two hijacked passenger jets were flown into the 110-storey World Trade Center, had not altered the plans for the Shanghai World Financial Centre. A total of 2,759 people died in the hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center. Visit the World Trade Center memorial competition for more information.

“In its powerful, yet simple articulation of the footprints of the Twin Towers, “Reflecting Absence” has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of our loss. It is a memorial that expresses both the incalculable loss of life and its consoling renewal, a place where all of us come together to remember from generation to generation.”

I like the footprints idea, the absence that echo, the voids that speaks for itself. Well, two more days to go till september 11. There is this movie called World Trade Center directed by Oliver Stone, and like all movies directed by him, this would be another dull movie.