Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 00:43:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: More WTC Related News and Thoughts Some of you will have seen this Associated Press story about their interview with Whitehead's right-hand man and fellow Pataki appointee,Lou Tomson. I spotted it at the Newsday website,it was also picked up by CNN (which is in the same corporate family as Time, which ran that rather anti-Towers article quoting David Childs). -=-=- Consensus Grows on Trade Center Site By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press Writer May 27, 2002, 1:37 PM EDT NEW YORK --The president of the agency charged with rebuilding the World Trade Center site sees consensus emerging on what will replace the twin towers -- including a "reverential" memorial that could take up almost half of the 16 acres at ground zero. In an interview with The Associated Press, Louis Tomson said some families are beginning to support a seven-acre expanse on the west side of the property as a memorial site. In the past, families have urged that anywhere from 10 acres to the entire site be set aside for a memorial. The portion identified by Tomson would include the so-called "footprints" of both towers, an important element to many families. "At the very least that should be dedicated to a memorial," said Mary Ellen Salamone, whose husband, John, died in the attack. "It is the burial ground for many people who remain unidentified or who were never found." The cleanup of the trade center site is scheduled to end on Thursday with a ceremony in which an empty, flag-draped stretcher -- symbolizing the hundreds of victims whose remains have not been identified -- will be carried out. After that, control of the site will revert from the city to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land. An immediate sign of the transition, Tomson said, will be construction of a "viewing wall" around the site that, with its steel mesh panels, will allow the public to view the work inside. Tomson was appointed by Gov. George Pataki in January to head the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency that has received $2 billion in federal funds for the redevelopment of the trade center and the surrounding area. Tomson is considered a trusted operative for Pataki. He served most recently as chairman of the New York State Thruway Authority, but has held posts representing the governor on mass transit and utility agencies as well. He shares leadership at the Lower Manhattan agency with Chairman John Whitehead, a retired Wall Street executive. They lead a 14-member board, half appointed by Pataki and half by the city. The agency, in turn, shares decision-making with the Port Authority. Tomson said getting the overall plan and its financing in place and making key decisions on the memorial are his three immediate priorities. Public hearings have just begun on the redevelopment plans, but Tomson said a broad consensus is emerging to develop the site as a cultural, business and transportation hub. An international competition to choose a design for the memorial, with family input, will likely follow. Work already has begun on rebuilding the commuter train and subway stations demolished in the Sept. 11 attack. Reconstructed subway lines are expected to accommodate riders by November. A new commuter rail station is scheduled for completion by December 2003. The development corporation, criticized just months ago for moving too slowly, has set an ambitious timetable for producing a redevelopment plan before the year is over. Now, it is drawing new complaints. "People say the process is moving too fast," Tomson said. "I say there's a lot of consensus." Last week, the Port Authority and the development agency announced the choice of architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle as the urban planning consultant that will assist their staffs in producing a plan. Beyer Blinder Belle won acclaim for its renovation of Grand Central Terminal, although New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp complained that "while the firm's remodeling of historical structures has earned high praise, its original work has been lackluster." Beyer Blinder Belle will submit up to six proposals to the boards of the development corporation and the Port Authority by July 1. Those will be narrowed to three or fewer by Sept. 1. A final blueprint is to be chosen by Dec. 1. -=-=- I spoke very briefly with Tomson at the hearing...he had been looking at my nametag,I stood up to let him see the "World Trade Center Restoration Movement" part. Looks like he is determined to promise that Osama bin Laden's wishes regarding any buildings on the old footprints will be respected. This is regrettable but not by itself fatal,if the potential terrorist pointing to the empty footprints to encourage an apprentice with this clear past success is belied by gigantic new Towers looking over his shoulder.But if he can turn around and point to 50/60-story symbols of surrender,and say "see, that's all they dared build afterward!" we've lost twice. I've been kicking around ideas for a development plan to compete with all the gimlet-eyed opportunists who see the opportunity Uncle Osama gave them to play around with the future of Lower Manhattan as a chance to impose their own visions never mind the surrender to murderous terror they constitute...besides adding four hardened stairwell cores (two stairways each) in the areas toward the corners from the elevator cores of slightly larger new Twin Towers (largest column free space,if no columns are also added, would be 140' x 70'...enough for most applications!)... I've looked over some of the things the other plans address. I'D LIKE INPUT,ESPECIALLY FROM CITY RESIDENTS. I propose leaving the superblock intact south of Fulton Street,rather than running Greenwich Street all the way through down to Liberty Street. Re-open Fulton Street...WITH A STREETCAR LINE that goes over West Street on a bridge with pedestrian lanes to a station in Battery Park City,possibly a ferry terminal, and proceeds across town to the fish market with stops that transfer to other transit routes. Extend the PATH station into the area of the former Hudson Terminal,by Church Street...offer direct connections to the 1/9/N/R trains there,and tunnels with "people movers" farther east for transfer to the 2/3/4/5/A/C/J/M/Z lines at Broadway & Fulton.(Also streetcar station above,of course). Other ideas? Learned some interesting tidbits...the Park Row Building (1899) was significantly taller than the 1902 "Flatiron", so the latter was actually never the world's tallest...the Park Row remained tallest until the Singer Building (later torn down to make room for One Liberty Plaza) was finished in 1908. The Park Row(the first 400-foot building,the Singer was the first 600-foot building) still stands,a few buildings down Park Row from Spruce Street,where one goes downhill to the bottom of the block to find the basement-level auditorium where the Whitehead clique held their first public hearing. Also...like the Empire State Building,the tower at 40 Wall Street survived an airplane impact in the 1940s. Beyond that...of special interest to those in the immediate NYC area...Bill Hough has sent me the following: > We have compiled what you said, what you wrote to us, what you posted > on our website. We now invite all participants, facilitators and > workshop hosts to finalize the themes and vision statements gathered > through Imagine New York at the Imagine New York Summit. These themes > will create the foundation of a report that will be presented to the > Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New > York and New Jersey, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki, > and other key decision-makers. This will also help to guide our > ongoing advocacy efforts for the future of New York. The Summit will > be held on Saturday, June 1st from 10 am to 2 pm at The New School > University, Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue, NY NY. Breakfast > and registration begin at 9:30 am. RSVP to the Imagine New York > hotline at (212) 750-3972 or to info@imaginenewyork.org If you can be there,be there. Otherwise,remember the June 3 deadline for comments to the Civic Alliance on their "Framework"...the ASAP reservation requirement for the July 20th "Listening to the City II" event... the June 26th deadline for sending comments on the Phase I RFP...and that the next public hearing will be in August. (A few posters at the NYCS board post email addresses that don't work(Novus,Simone,etc),or none at all...I can't help those I can't reach!) -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.