Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 23:00:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Plans & Politics (As ever,for anyone I've just added to this list... I promptly honor all requests to be removed from it). Multiple listmembers alerted me to the pro-rebuilding-tall column by syndicated political commentator Ann Coulter that can be found,among other sites,at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/columnists/coulter/ where one can also leave comments. Coulter is a conservative,and uses the rebuilding issue for liberal-bashing...I do not see this as a liberal-conservative issue at all,but the comment to that effect I submitted has yet to show up on the website.I did add a number of people who left their addresses with pro-rebuilding comments there, to this email list. The whole "Leave Manhattan Destroyed Committee" board was appointed by Republicans,as was the "I can't see building anything taller than 50 stories" Port Authority Chairman (he was a parting gift from New Jersey acting governor DiFrancesco).But those of us committed to bringing the Towers back come from across the political spectrum and around the world. We need to make common cause on this and when they're back, then we can squabble about which of our partisan interest groups gets to rent 110th-floor offices! As I noted in my last mailing,the Whitehead group's timeline said they were supposed to release a revision of the "Principles and Preliminary Blueprint" on June 5th,when they held their regular meeting(the next is July 17th). While they have revised their website since then,the addition is all about housing grants...and while there have been news stories about that meeting,they have focussed on Alexander Garvin's commenting on a recently introduced option of little "expandable" four-to-eight-story buildings,designed to later be built taller. Obviously,we do not want this option pursued unless the new buildings are EXPLICITLY designed to be bases of new Twin Towers at least as tall as the old ones...if they are not designed to take more than a hundred additional stories on top,they will need to be removed(so much for the convenience of building piecemeal) and their foundations replaced with stronger ones in order to build new Twin Towers. I've noted that 1909 old Metropolitan Life tower was the first 700-foot building...MetLife had plans for a building next door to be the first 1000-foot building,but they only built the base 23 stories,with thirty elevators,before finances gave out in the 1920s and they left that milestone to the Chrysler Building.It doesn't seem likely that these "expandables" would have the elevator space set apart to make giant towers on top feasible,if they were looking for a quick return to office space. Since Garvin will be in the Java webchat at gothamgazette.com next Tuesday at noon Eastern,we can submit queries to rebuilding@gothamgazette.com or on the day (through a moderator) to try to cover these issues.(Be polite,but make clear what your concerns are). Multiple listmembers also sent me news stories about plans prepared for WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein by David Childs,the Skidmore Owings & Merrill architect who described the construction of the Twin Towers as an act of vandalism when interviewed by TIME. The options there include a 70-story building with a skeleton on top,more details are now available than were before when I heard of this in principle...Childs still wants something evocative of the terrorists' actions rather than of our recovery or resistance,though.He speaks of how it would "dissolve" at the top,like "branches of a tree"...rather than making it possible for us to again rise to the former height to look out or dine. (Bill Hough sent me the commentary by the Chicago Tribune architecture critic,Tannis Baker the shorter article from the New York Post). The issue of renting at high levels is mentioned once again; Silverstein has to know that the 110th floor of a 110-story building will be one of the first snapped up.He just figures that the reluctance in general will make too many floors below it go empty for it to be economical for there to BE a 110th floor.We need to promote the importance of being able to return to the levels that were taken from us...not being limited to rising no taller than 40 Wall and 70 Pine (now temporarily again the tallest buildings in the financial district). A skyline that shows off,with its skeletal void a la Childs, how the killers clobbered us,is NOT denying the killers' wishes in the fashion they MUST be denied to properly honor the dead! As confidence heals,so will willingness to rise to the skies; we can't let short-term fear deny it for the long term. The plans Silverstein is looking at go along with the efforts to restore the cramped old street grid...talking about a pedestrian shopping mall along Cortland Street.We have to fight to save the superblock and plaza from being carved up more than we can avoid,because tall buildings will be attacked for being too close to streets! Everyone knows the Towers were landmarks even before they were constructed...but they did not last long enough to be eligible for formal designation(that could have come next year,but the Park Row Building,tallest in the world 1899-1908, had to wait until it was 100 years old). I believe the first formally landmarked MODERN skyscraper was the Seagram Building...the landmarking frustrated efforts to replace it with a taller,more efficient building I rather liked the architect's drawing of. Yet more about the July 20th event...I now DO have the email confirmation,with details...the participants will be served breakfast and lunch at the event. Registration runs from 8 AM to 8:45 AM, the program 9 AM to 4 PM. Once again,everybody...if you can possibly be there REGISTER and get every pro-rebuilding-very-tall/pro-Towers person you can to do the same... CALL 800-862-3154 Or EMAIL listening@civic-alliance.org Or VISIT www.listeningtothecity.org, but REGISTER, and BE AT THE JAVITS CENTER JULY 20TH! (Our pro-rebuilders' networking dinner can follow). The exact talking points we'll need won't be known until further releases of documents and design options we'll have to react to...but the most Tower-friendly of the six options BBB comes up with will be the one we have to advocate,recommending further modifications to be more to our liking,while rejecting the symbols of surrender proposed in other options. As noted,I'd like to work up a more comprehensive competing planning proposal by then. Squeaky wheels get the grease...and the experienced community groups wanting their way have to be outcompeted for the ears of those who want to "Listen to the City". See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.