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Rebuilding NYC January 2004


Arab Culture Near Ground Zero - Jan 31, 2004
In the wake of 9/11, and especially in Downtown Manhattan, Alwan for the Arts is trying to highlight the diversity of Arab culture, showing New Yorkers that it is more than just the destructive force we witnessed two years ago. It can also be extraordinarily creative. (Downtown Express)

17,300 Sign Up For World Trade Center Health Registry - Jan 31, 2004
The New York City Department of Health said Friday that more than 17,300 people had so far enrolled in its World Trade Center Health Registry, which tracks the health of people who were exposed to dust and debris after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on lower Manhattan. (1010 Wins)

1,168 Staten Islanders Sign Up For World Trade Center Health Registry - Jan 31, 2004
Of the 17,304 people who have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry as of December 31, 2003, 1,168 are from Staten Island, according to a report released yesterday by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (Staten Island Advance)

Man Charged With 9/11 Equipment Theft - Jan 31, 2004
Firefighters responding to a report of smoke in a Brooklyn apartment did not find a fire, but they did find firefighting equipment that had been lost at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, the Fire Department said Friday. (Newsday)

Bush To Seek Extension For Liberty Bonds - Jan 31, 2004
President Bush plans to ask Congress to extend until 2009 the Liberty Bond program, which provides tax-free financing to help New York City rebuild after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The program permits the state and city to issue a total of $8 billion in tax-exempt bonds for commercial and residential construction projects, primarily in Lower Manhattan. Financing with such bonds lowers the cost of the projects. (New York Times)

Senators To Introduce Legislation To Extend 9/11 Commission's Deadline - Jan 30, 2004
The two key Senate authors of the bill that created an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks said Thursday that they would introduce legislation next week to extend the panel's deadline by eight months, to next January. (New York Times)

Ground Zero Reconstruction To Cost Over $11 Billion - Jan 30, 2004
Rebuilding the office and retail space at the World Trade Center will cost close to $7.5 billion Ă‘ part of a total Ground Zero reconstruction tab of more than $11 billion, The Post has learned. (New York Post)

Judge Says 1993 World Trade Center Lawsuits Can Proceed - Jan 30, 2004
More than 175 lawsuits filed over the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center against the agency that owns the site may proceed to trial, a Manhattan judge ruled Thursday. State Supreme Court Justice Stanley Sklar refused to dismiss the lawsuits, saying one of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's own committees had warned as early as 1984 that the trade center site, which included the now-destroyed twin towers, was a vulnerable and likely terrorism target. (Associated Press)

Battle Over 9/11 Commission Becomes Political Challenge For President - Jan 29, 2004
Long-simmering tensions with the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks became a more immediate problem for the White House this week as the panel released a series of damaging revelations about missed opportunities to stop the al Qaeda hijackers and opposed the administration by asking for more time to complete its work, according to panel members and political experts (Washington Post)

In One Family, Ugly Court Battle Over How 9/11 Money Is Spent - Jan 29, 2004
As the sole heir of deceased World Trade Center firefighter William Lake, 9-year-old Kyler Lake received a small fortune in charity funds and death benefits. How that money is being spent is at the heart of a vitriolic court battle, the longest-running and most hotly contested Sept. 11 case in Kings County Surrogate's Court. (Newsday)

British Citizen Faces Deportation Over 9/11 Scam - Jan 29, 2004
A British citizen who tried to scam redevelopment officials out of $12,000 in downtown residential grants intended for post-9/11 relief has been sentenced to six months in jail and will be deported. (New York Post)

Wealthy Woman Pleads Guilty To 9/11 Scam - Jan 29, 2004
An elderly millionairess pleaded guilty yesterday to taking advantage of the mass murders at the World Trade Center by scamming money from 9/11 relief organizations. (New York Post)

Flight Attendant Was Calm On 9/11 - Jan 28, 2004
Shortly before Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Center, the American Airlines operations center received a calm phone call from one of its flight attendants. (Associated Press)

9/11 Hijackers Used Mace, Pepper Spray - Jan 28, 2004
The hijackers of Sept. 11, 2001, blasted Mace or pepper spray at flight crew members and passengers to keep them away from the cockpits and wielded knives in their orchestrated takeovers of the aircraft, according to a report issued yesterday by the commission investigating the attacks. (Washington Post)

Flight Attendant Was Calm On 9/11 - Jan 28, 2004
Shortly before Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Center, the American Airlines operations center received a calm phone call from one of its flight attendants. (Associated Press)

ACLU: 9/11 Suspects Mistreated - Jan 28, 2004
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the United Nations Tuesday, alleging that many immigrants imprisoned and deported during the probe into the Sept. 11 terror attacks were denied fundamental rights under international law. (Newsday)

9/11 Commission Says It Needs More Time - Jan 28, 2004
The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks announced on Tuesday that it was seeking an extension of its deadline to complete the investigation until at least July, raising the prospect of a public fight with the White House and a final report delivered in the heat of the presidential campaign. (New York Times)

9/11 Commission Faults US For Letting Hijackers In - Jan 27, 2004
The U.S. government fumbled repeated opportunities to stop many of the men responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks from entering the country, missing fraudulent passports and other warning signs that should have attracted greater scrutiny, according to a preliminary report released yesterday. (Washington Post)

New York Officials Criticize Homeland Security Funding - Jan 27, 2004
New York politicians in both parties say they are troubled that federal antiterrorism money specifically intended for the nation's most vulnerable cities is being spent in parts of the country that do not have urgent security needs. (New York Times)

Battery Park City Residents Face Rent Hikes As 9/11 Grants End - Jan 27, 2004
Battery Park City is bracing for change as the bulk of 9/11 rental assistance winds down and residents evaluate whether they can afford to remain in the area without the monthly government subsidy. (Downtown Express)

Poet Criticizes Memorial, In Verse - Jan 27, 2004
Opinions about the plans for a World Trade Center memorial are easy to find. Precious few qualify as poetry, though. Eugene Schlanger's thoughts carry no more weight than anyone else's. But their lyricism is unmistakable, agree with them or not. (New York Times)

Nuts And Bolts (And Water) Challenge Memorial Design - Jan 26, 2004
The jury has reached its verdict: two enormous square voids, set on the spots where the twin towers once stood, will be the centerpiece of the World Trade Center memorial. But now a jury of a different kind must weigh in: the engineers, horticulturists, carpenters, electricians, and plumbers who will actually build it. (New York Times)

On Memorial, Great Minds Think Alike? - Jan 26, 2004
A memorial for Ground Zero designed by Stuvyestant High School students last June contains several now-familiar features: A series of ramps leading to two reflecting pools at the Twin Tower footprints. A wall of names around the pools honoring those people killed on 9/11. A handful of trees surrounding the pools on a street-level plaza. A cultural building nearby on Greenwich St. (Downtown Express)

2,749 May Be Final Death Toll Of 9/11 - Jan 23, 2004
2,749. Unless something unexpected happens, this figure could well be the final count that history books will record as the number of victims who died in the World Trade Center attack, city officials said yesterday. (New York Times)

The New PATH Station - Jan 23, 2004
In aesthetics and logistics, Mr. Calatrava's design aspires to be far more than a commuter rail station, vital as that is to Lower Manhattan. Its admirers are already mentioning it in the same breath as the old Pennsylvania Station, which was torn down in the early 1960's, and Grand Central Terminal, which Mr. Calatrava claimed as his "deepest inspirational object." (New York Times)

Roxbury Firefighters Honored For Work On 9/11 - Jan 22, 2004
A plaque of appreciation from the New York City Fire Department, along with two framed chunks of steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Center have been presented to the volunteer firemen and first aiders in Roxbury Township, New Jersey. (Roxbury Register)

Deutsche Deal Near At Ground Zero - Jan 22, 2004
Development officials hope to work out a deal to buy the damaged Deutsche Bank building next to Ground Zero in coming weeks, at the same time they resolve an insurance dispute that has threatened to stall downtown rebuilding plans, sources told The Post. (New York Post)

PATH Station To Be Unveiled Today - Jan 22, 2004
A design for a permanent PATH station is to be unveiled this morning by Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which will build the $2 billion project. Though the PATH terminal is the third key element of the trade center redevelopment project - in many ways, quite literally its heart - the design will almost burst on the civic consciousness, since work has proceeded quietly, with none of the discordant prelude that accompanied Freedom Tower and the memorial, "Reflecting Absence." (New York Times)

Peter Walker: Memorial Designer - Jan 22, 2004
Peter Walker is secure that he, a landscape doctor with a proclivity for transforming negative urban spaces into positive ones, is the man to refine Michael Arad's design. "To cut two giant holes in the ground, and do it in a way that will get people to read it the most dramatic way, is the discipline behind the plan. At this point, I think Michael and I are joined at the hip: what we're trying to do is make emptiness visible." (New York Times)

Silverstein Agrees To Safety Checks, But Critics Remain Unsatisfied - Jan 21, 2004
In an effort to reassure the public that new buildings at the World Trade Center site will meet government-mandated safety standards, the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein have agreed in principle to subject their construction projects to several new and independent safety checks, according to a draft of the proposal obtained by The Observer. But members of a postÐSept. 11 advocacy group, whose criticism of Port Authority safety policies helped bring the issue to the fore, labeled the proposal a "sham," citing what they saw as a lack of enforcement powers. (New York Observer)

A New Contract For Memorial Designers - Jan 21, 2004
In approving a contract renewal Tuesday with the winning designers of the World Trade Center memorial, the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation established, for the first time, the consulting fees the two men will be paid. (Newsday)

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Chief Quits To Work On Jets Stadium - Jan 21, 2004
Matthew Higgins, chief operating officer for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, said yesterday that he was leaving the agency to join the New York Jets, where he will assist the football team in building a proposed stadium and convention center on Manhattan's West Side. (Newsday)

Michael Arad: Memorial Designer - Jan 21, 2004
What made Michael Arad stop feeling like an outsider and start feeling like a bona fide New Yorker was, he says, the horror of Sept. 11: he watched the second plane hit from his rooftop, raced downtown to find his wife and, from Fulton Street, experienced the collapse of the first tower. Even before the memorial contest, he began work on a memorial. (New York Times)

Next For Ground Zero: Noise And Traffic - Jan 21, 2004
Snarled traffic, long shadows and noise - a decade's worth of noise - will be the inevitable byproducts of the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, according to a 2,000-page study approved yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

9/11 Disability Pensions Raise Questions - Jan 20, 2004
Four top fire union officials who left or were voted out of office after Sept. 11, 2001, and who had spent most of the previous eight years doing administrative work have retired on tax-free disability pensions, city records show. (Newsday)

At Ground Zero, Rebuilding With Nature In Mind - Jan 20, 2004
While most of the anguished debate about ground zero has focused on recreating and remembering what was once there, another effort has been moving forward to create on the site something that never existed, an environmentally sensitive city within a city that is attuned to nature as well as the real estate market. (New York Times)

Stories of the Memorial Jury - Jan 19, 2004
Above all else, it was a jury. It was sequestered, for six months, from those who would intrude. Its members were trapped in deliberation until consensus could be established. It called for expert testimony, then called for it again. It quarreled. It soul-searched. It schmoozed and, yes, it laughed. (New York Times)

Police Commissioner's Security Measures - Jan 18, 2004
Interview: Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Discusses His Department's Work At Fighting Terrorism And General Crime (WNBC)

The Juror Who Gave Birth While Considering Memorials - Jan 17, 2004
She was pregnant in the spring when she and her fellow jurors attended combative public meetings about the World Trade Center memorial. She gave birth in June, and then worked with her colleagues considering 5,201 ideas before selecting the revised plan by Michael Arad and Peter Walker that was unveiled to the public on Wednesday. (Downtown Express)

Victim Compensation Fund Enrollment At 98 Percent - Jan 17, 2004
Ninety-eight percent of the families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks have applied for federal compensation, the special master of a government fund said Friday. Kenneth Feinberg said 2,925 families have applied. The official death count was 2,976. (Associated Press)

Bloomberg Would Have Preferred Ground Zero School To A Memorial - Jan 17, 2004
Mayor Bloomberg disclosed that he would have built new schools where the World Trade Center once stood - instead of a memorial commemorating the dead. Talking on his weekly radio show yesterday, Bloomberg was careful not to criticize the winning design for the memorial, titled Reflecting Absence. But he suggested that a better approach would have been building new schools. (New York Daily News)

Revisions Please Some, Leave Others Wanting More - Jan 15, 2004
Reaction to the revised Reflecting Absence varied within the network of victims' family groups, with some embracing Arad's model and others saying the plan needed further adjustment. (Newsday)

Public Introduced To Memorial Designer - Jan 15, 2004
Michael Arad is not accustomed to the public arena. That much is clear. In presenting his winning World Trade Center memorial model Wednesday in the glare of the international press and New York's political honchos, Arad seemed barely able to breathe. He spoke softly. His emotions seemed scarcely restrained. He seemed intimidated by the stage he now commands -- or perhaps it was that rarest of public qualities: an awestruck humility. (Washington Post)

Victims' Families Renew Request For 9/11 Records - Jan 15, 2004
Families of victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack said Wednesday they will go back to court to find out more about the final hours of their relatives' lives on September 11, 2001. (CNN)

Memorial Name Order Final - Jan 15, 2004
The controversial decision to list the names of the World Trade Center victims in random order - with rescue workers getting special designation - is final, officials said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Memorial Will Cost Over $350 Million - Jan 15, 2004
It will cost more than $350 million to build the "Reflecting Absence" memorial at Ground Zero, a top development official said yesterday. The preliminary estimate includes the cost of building the tribute's signature reflecting pools and waterfalls, the park, and an underground museum that will contain 9/11 artifacts, such as a crushed fire engine or the last steel column to be removed from Ground Zero. (New York Post)

An Abundance Of New Ideas In Revised Memorial - Jan 15, 2004
It seemed unlikely that there could be more surprises yesterday when the tweaked, updated, reconciled - and leaked - World Trade Center memorial was unveiled by Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. After all, the name of the dark-horse winning design - Reflecting Absence, by Michael Arad, 34, and Peter Walker, 71 - was trumpeted last week, and artists' renderings and many of its signature features had been revealed on Tuesday. But though no curtain was parted to reveal the latest model at yesterday's much-anticipated ceremony, a wealth of new details was presented. (New York Times)

Starting Over: A Firm Rebuilds After Being Hit Hard On 9/11 - Jan 14, 2004
When the planes slammed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, few companies were as hard-hit as a small, close-knit firm called Sandler O'Neill. Of the 83 people in the office that morning, only 17 got out alive. Employees lost mentors, assistants lost bosses, friends lost friends. This is the story of what happened next. (Fortune)

New York Senator Criticizes Security At New York's Passenger Ship Terminal - Jan 14, 2004
New York's Passenger Ship Terminal does not use the new travelers fingerprint-identification system to check cruise ships - making the city more vulnerable to a terrorist attack, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday. (New York Post)

Order Of Names In Memorial Draws Criticism From Firefighters - Jan 14, 2004
The controversy over how to list the names of rescue workers in the Ground Zero memorial heated up yesterday, with firefighters voicing disapproval of a plan to list all the 9/11 victims together in random order. (New York Post)

Artifacts, Bedrock of Footprints Included In Revised Design - Jan 14, 2004
Here is the long-awaited final design of the Ground Zero memorial called "Reflecting Absence" - a tranquil urban forest surrounding two cascading pools sunk into the footprints of the Twin Towers. (New York Post)

Revised Memorial Design Addresses Criticism - Jan 14, 2004
The finished design for the World Trade Center memorial site will build on the original concept of twin voids marking the location and outlines of the twin towers, but will add lusher landscaping, create an underground center to house artifacts from the attack and establish a cultural center at the recreated intersection of Fulton and Greenwich Streets. (New York Times)

Firefighters Renew Effort For Memorial Name Distinction - Jan 13, 2004
Firefighters who want the names of 9/11 rescue workers listed separately in the Ground Zero memorial renewed calls yesterday for Gov. Pataki to back their demands. (Firehouse.com)

Freedom Tower Struggle Far From Finished - Jan 13, 2004
It's not unusual for developers, politicians, and architects to clash over real estate projects in New York City. But there's never been anything like the battle over the World Trade Center site. (Fortune Magazine)

Families Of 9/11 Victims Start Fundraising Drive For Cultural Events - Jan 13, 2004
Relatives of Sept. 11 victims said yesterday they hope to raise $9.11 million by the third anniversary of the terror attack for educational and cultural programs tied to the Ground Zero memorial. Monica Iken, a World Trade Center widow who heads a family group called September's Mission, said money raised through the "9/11 Campaign" will pay for things like museum displays or workshops. Money for the construction of the memorial will be raised through a separate foundation being organized by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (New York Post)

9/11 Effects Still Straining Relationships - Jan 12, 2004
Mental-health professionals said they were not surprised at the real-life soap operas that emerged after the twin towers fell. An initial screening of 7,000 World Trade Center workers at Mount Sinai Hospital found that a high percentage experienced relationship problems after 9/11. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

About Michael Arad, Memorial Designer - Jan 12, 2004
Upon being notified of the decision, Michael Arad called his parents in Jerusalem to tell them the news. "I'm very proud, happy, and emotionally moved," Moshe Arad told The Jerusalem Post. "I hope that the significance of this will be appreciated by both Israelis and Americans." Arad has been living in the U.S. since finishing his military service in the Israeli Defense Force in 1991. He received a BA from Dartmouth College, and a MA from Georgia Tech's College of Architecture. (Israel 21c)

Firefighters Still Calling For Name Distinction In Memorial - Jan 12, 2004
Firefighters who want the names of 9/11 rescue workers listed separately in the Ground Zero memorial renewed calls yesterday for Gov. Pataki to back their demands. (New York Post)

Turning Three Visions Into One Memorial Design - Jan 12, 2004
Now that Michael Arad and Peter Walker have been chosen as the designers of the World Trade Center memorial site, they are working intently to design it. They met last week at Mr. Walker's office in Berkeley, Calif., and this weekend at Studio Daniel Libeskind on Rector Street, three blocks from ground zero. They are trying to mesh Mr. Arad's arrestingly stark vision for the site with Mr. Walker's distinctive landscaping and Mr. Libeskind's master plan for the entire trade center site. (New York Times)

As Complaints Mount, Memorial Is Revised - Jan 12, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency in charge of rebuilding the trade center site, and the selection jury it appointed have been trying to strike a delicate balance between artistic independence and responding to public concerns while considering revisions to Reflecting Absence, recently selected as the 9/11 memorial for Ground Zero. (Associated Press)

Relaxation Of Security At Empire State Building Causes Worry - Jan 11, 2004
The Empire State Building has stopped screening visitors at its entrances, leaving tourists and some tenants worried because it remains a tempting target for terrorists. These days, visitors to the 86th-floor observation deck are amazed to find that anyone can stroll into the lobby, the basement and much of the second floor before being checked by security. (New York Post)

New York Daily News Donates $100,000 To Statue Of Liberty - Jan 11, 2004
The New York Daily News donated $100,000 to the reopening of the Statue of Liberty, and asked its readers to add to that. $5 million of new security is needed to reopen the statue to visitors. It has been closed since 9/11. (New York Daily News)

Israeli Architect Chosen As Memorial Designer - Jan 10, 2004
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has chosen Israeli architect Michael Arad, a resident of New York, to design the monument at the devastated World Trade Center site in Manhattan. Arad, 34, was born in London. He lives in Manhattan and is an architect at the New York City Engineering Department. (Haaretz)

Culture To Return To Memorial - Jan 10, 2004
Michael Arad wanted to take out almost all of the cultural buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center memorial in his original Reflecting Absence design, but his revised plan selected by the jury this week will restore most if not all of the museum and performance spaces, according to planning officials. (Downtown Express)

Childs Takes Freedom Tower Design to Community Board 1 - Jan 10, 2004
Freedom Tower architect David Childs offered more details Wednesday on security and public access for his building, a collaboration with site planner Daniel Liebskind that could restore DowntownÕs skyline as early as 2006. At a Community Board 1 meeting, Childs stressed that much about the design for the 1,776-foot tower remained subject to change. But he presented one certainty along with the ÒfluidÓ plans: The building would be among the safest in the world. (Downtown Express)

Summing Up Rebuilding - Jan 10, 2004
A summary of rebuilding, an attempt to lay out the cast of characters and locate each portion of the mammoth project on the continuum between pipe dream and the actual laying of pipes. (Newsday)

Firefighters' 9/11 Tapes Ordered Released - Jan 10, 2004
An appeals court has ruled that the Fire Department cannot edit out statements about emergency workers' personal feelings when it releases documents and audiotapes showing the response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. (Associated Press)

Memorial To Preserve World Trade Tower Columns - Jan 09, 2004
The 9/11 memorial will preserve traces of the north tower's steel columns and the building's bedrock footprint, which visitors will be able to view in an underground room, sources said yesterday. The revised memorial design, which is being fleshed out this week, would respond to groups of 9/11 family members who have demanded the footprints of both World Trade Center towers be preserved at bedrock. (New York Post)

New Yorkers Complacent About Attack Despite 9/11 - Jan 09, 2004
Though home to ground zero and the worst horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, "citizen complacency" toward terrorism remains a serious problem in New York state, a state legislative committee has concluded. Sen. Michael Balboni, chairman of the Senate's Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs, said too few New Yorkers know how to deal with another terrorist strike. (Newsday)

The Spirit Of The Freedom Tower - Jan 08, 2004
The shining tower planed for the gawked-upon gap of the World Trade Center may be the first skyscraper to pray for its city. The designer of the wind turbines that will occupy the top of the "Freedom Tower" wants the rotors to serve as prayer wheels, cycling through mantras of peace. (Village Voice)

Ideas For JFK Rail Link To Be Presented This Month - Jan 08, 2004
Four options for a direct rail link from lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport will be unveiled this month and one will be selected in April for development, Gov. Pataki announced yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Reconciling The Site Plan And The Memorial Design - Jan 08, 2004
The two designers of the winning entry for the World Trade Center memorial are to meet today with Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind in Berkeley, Calif., to begin the prickly task of making their disparate schemes fit together, sources said. (New York Daily News)

How Memorial Acquired A Second Designer - Jan 08, 2004
When a proposal called Reflecting Absence was submitted last year to the World Trade Center memorial site competition, there was one name on it: that of Michael Arad, a young architect for the New York City Housing Authority. When Reflecting Absence was announced on Tuesday as the winner of the six-month competition, there was another name: Peter Walker of Berkeley, California, who has 45 years of experience in the teaching and practice of landscape architecture. (New York Times)

Memorial Design Faces Revisions - Jan 08, 2004
The design of two pools standing in the World Trade Center's footprints was among the most minimal of entries in the Sept. 11 memorial competition. Its simplicity conveyed both profound loss and rebirth, a jury found in choosing it. But a day after hearing that designer Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker would present a significantly revised version of their ``Reflecting Absence'' design next week, some wondered how much of the original plan would be left. (Associated Press)

Memorial Design Wins Fans - Jan 08, 2004
Visitors to Ground Zero yesterday voiced approval of the minimalist memorial design chosen for the tragic site. "They went out of their way to make sure that the right memorial was chosen," said Gary Scarder, of Brooklyn. "It's definitely a compliment to those who we've lost." (New York Post)

Cop Caught Videotaping Girl In Shower Blames 9/11 - Jan 07, 2004
A Port Authority cop who admitted to videotaping an 11-year-old Queens girl while she showered blames the horrors of 9/11 for his candid-camera work, his lawyer said yesterday. (New York Post)

With Changes, 'Reflecting Absence' Is The One - Jan 07, 2004
A minimalist design that marks the World Trade Center footprints with two cascading pools of water is the surprise winner for the Ground Zero memorial, officials announced yesterday. A statement from the jury said the winning design "has evolved significantly" since it was first shown as one of eight finalists last November. (New York Post)

To Jury, Less Was More - Jan 07, 2004
In the end, the jury seemed to see the same thing so many people have seen at the World Trade Center site since Sept. 11, 2001: what is not there. Faced with many possible additions to the site, jurors in the memorial competition chose subtraction instead. As conceived by Michael Arad, Reflecting Absence would evoke the outlines of the twin towers as pool-filled voids in the earth, 30 feet deep and almost an acre each in extent. Perhaps more than any finalist, this design expresses loss in stark, unambiguous visual terms. (New York Times)

Experienced Architect Added To 'Reflecting Absence' Team - Jan 07, 2004
Yesterday, in announcing that Reflecting Absence had beaten two other designs that were informal semifinalists last week, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said "significant" changes had been made in Mr. Arad's original design. The corporation also said Mr. Arad was collaborating with the landscape architect Peter Walker. Mr. Arad was virtually unheard of until the finalists were selected, while Mr. Walker has worked with some of the biggest names in architecture, including I. M. Pei, Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster and Yoshio Taniguchi. (New York Times)

'Reflecting Absence' Picked As Memorial - Jan 07, 2004
The memorial at ground zero will be a teeming grove of trees above two deep reflecting pools within the outlines of the twin towers. At least that was the initial concept. For though the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation yesterday announced the winner of the competition to memorialize those slain at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, it delayed a complete description of the design and its image, as well as access to its creators, until a high-profile unveiling planned for next week. (New York Times)

Woman Who Scammed 9/11 Charities Sentenced to Prison - Jan 06, 2004
A 9/11 scammer who snookered charities out of $80,000 was tossed in the slammer for at least two years yesterday. (New York Post)

Reliving 9/11 -- With Fire As A Teacher - Jan 06, 2004
The World Trade Center was burning again Ă‘ at least one small part of it Ă‘ in a fuel-soaked, full-size recreation of a Marsh & McLennan office on the 96th floor of the north tower, where the first plane struck on Sept. 11. This office is inside a towering laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. And it is only one fragment of the disaster being replayed for a federal investigation centered here. (New York Times)

Memorial Design is Chosen - Jan 06, 2004
After six weeks of deliberation, the jury assembled to choose a memorial for the site of the World Trade Center has made its decision, which it will announce today. The full description of the winning design will not be made until next week, said Matthew Higgins, the corporation's chief operating officer. (New York Times)

Better Security Needed On Cargo Planes, Says Congressman - Jan 05, 2004
The federal government hasn't done nearly enough to thwart terrorists who might target cargo planes flying in and out of New York airports, Sen. Chuck Schumer warned yesterday. (New York Post)

Jury May Decide On Memorial Today - Jan 05, 2004
The Ground Zero memorial jury will meet today and may pick a winning design, sources familiar with the competition said. The 13-member jury has narrowed its choices down to three designs and will focus on them in their discussions today. (New York Post)

Congressman Defends Times Square Security Comment - Jan 03, 2004
Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays said yesterday that he doesn't regret warning people to stay out of Times Square on New Year's Eve, even though the celebration went off without a hitch. (New York Daily News)

PATH Station Design Interferes With 'Wedge of Light' - Jan 02, 2004
The design for a new permanent PATH station at Ground Zero makes significant changes to Daniel Libeskind's World Trade Center master plan by moving the terminal building northward to overlap with the "Wedge of Light," sources told The Post. (New York Post)

Setback For Silverstein In Insurance Suit - Jan 01, 2004
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein suffered a setback yesterday in his legal bid to collect two insurance payouts totaling $7 billion by defining the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the towers as two events. Manhattan federal Judge Michael Mukasey ruled that jurors at the Feb. 9 trial can be told of a recent appeals-court ruling that found that Silverstein's contracts with three of the insurance companies involved in the dispute made it clear a terror attack would constitute only one occurrence. (New York Post)

Maritime Security Lags - Jan 01, 2004
Almost 5,000 ships and about 80 percent of the nation's ports, ferry terminals and fuel-chemical tank farms did not meet yesterday's deadline to submit maritime security plans spelling out how they will deal with terrorism threats, the Coast Guard said. (New York Post)

Bloomberg Criticizes Congressman For Times Square Security Remark - Jan 01, 2004
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday questioned the character of a congressman who said he wouldn't spend New Year's Eve in Times Square because of fear over a terrorist attack. Bloomberg went on three TV network morning shows to decry remarks Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) made on Tuesday saying that he "wouldn't go to Times Square" because it's a "tempting target" for terrorists. (New York Post)

Security Concerns Don't Stop The Partying - Jan 01, 2004
Helicopters swept the sky, and clusters of police officers stood guard on street corners. But for revelers in Times Square, the New Year's Eve countdown was about party, not panic. (New York Times)

Man Behind 9/11 Victims Fund Claims Victory, With Reservations - Jan 01, 2004
Kenneth R. Feinberg looks more fatigued than he did two years ago, when he agreed to work free as the administrator of the federal program to compensate the eligible relatives of Sept. 11 victims. The job, he now says, was "by far the most difficult assignment" of his legal career. But if he has worked almost nonstop, getting only three or four hours of sleep a night, Mr. Feinberg is not complaining now:97 percent of those eligible enrolled in the program (New York Times)

Rebuilding NYC February 2004


Beautiful, But Temporary, Architecture Downtown - Feb 28, 2004
The PATH station at Ground Zero is not intended to be permanent. And it certainly was not intended to be gorgeous. But like much of the temporary cityscape of Lower Manhattan, full of ephemeral landmarks that will disappear by the end of the decade, the station can sometimes feel sublime. (New York Times)

Survivors, Relatives Of Victims Mark 1993 Bombing - Feb 27, 2004
Survivors and relatives of victims of the 1993 bombing on the World Trade Center Thursday marked the anniversary with a Mass, a moment of silence at Ground Zero and a preview of the temporary memorial planned to honor the six people killed in that earlier attack. (Newsday )

Emotion As Ground Zero Theft Trial Proceeds - Feb 27, 2004
A young Queens woman sobbed on the witness stand yesterday as - for the first time since 9/11 - she saw her charred World Trade Center ID badge, allegedly stolen from Ground Zero by a tragedy-obsessed ex-firefighter. (New York Post)

Deutsche Bank Will Be Demolished - Feb 27, 2004
Deutsche Bank reached agreement yesterday with the state, insurers and downtown rebuilding officials on the fate of a 40-story skyscraper near the World Trade Center site that still stands despite being badly damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks. The tower at 130 Liberty Street, which is draped in a black shroud to hide a deep 24-story-long gash in its northern facade, would be demolished, according to several executive and government officials who had been briefed on the negotiations. (New York Times)

9/11 Commission Urges Rice To Testify Publicly - Feb 26, 2004
The federal commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks expressed disappointment Wednesday with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice for refusing to testify in public. (Associated Press)

Silverstein Has Already Spent $1.3 Billion Of Insurance Money - Feb 26, 2004
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein has already spent about $1.3 billion of the insurance money he received to cover the destruction of the trade center complex, according to a published report. At least $623.7 million in business interruption insurance has gone toward Silverstein's debt service, legal fees and lease payments to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing court documents and people familiar with the situation. (Associated Press)

1993 Bombing Still Haunts Victims - Feb 26, 2004
Today is the 11th anniversary of the bombing, an event that will pass almost unnoticed in a city where time seems to have started anew on Sept. 11, 2001. But for the 32 kindergartners from Public School 95 in Brooklyn who endured that first bombing, the wounds are as deep and fresh as ever. (New York Daily News)

On Anniversary Of 1993 Attack, A Proposal For A Temporary Shrine - Feb 26, 2004
The memorial for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11. Come the 12th anniversary of the attack, its survivors may once again have a spot. Today, at their annual breakfast, the survivors and relatives will be shown a proposal by the Port Authority for an interim marker that would stand until the permanent memorial, "Reflecting Absence," is built. No definite location for the marker has been chosen yet. (New York Times)

FBI Agents Took Souvenirs From Ground Zero - Feb 26, 2004
Thirteen agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation took mementos, debris or valuables from the Staten Island landfill that held the rubble of the World Trade Center, and the F.B.I. now plans to formally ban the removal of crime-scene items as a result, officials said on Wednesday. (New York Times)

Nationwide Anti-Terror Network Launched - Feb 25, 2004
Hundreds of federal, state and local intelligence and law enforcement agencies will be able to share threat reports, investigative leads and potential evidence instantaneously under a new counter-terrorism computer system announced yesterday by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. (Washington Post)

CIA Chief Defends Handling of Hijacker - Feb 25, 2004
The director of central intelligence on Tuesday defended his agency's handling of information it received about one of the Sept. 11 hijackers some two and a half years before the attacks, saying, "We didn't sit on our hands." (New York Times)

Couples Reject September 11 As Wedding Date - Feb 25, 2004
When Exeter resident Alison Antos began planning her September wedding, she found three Saturday dates open for booking. One of them she immediately rejected: Sept. 11. This year, for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the anniversary will fall, inauspiciously, on a Saturday. Couples across the country have had to soul-search as they booked their big days in what has always been a popular wedding month. Should their day of bliss correspond with a date remembered for mass tragedy? (Mercury News )

Firefighter Accused Of Stealing From Ground Zero Kept A Collection Of Gory 9/11 Photos - Feb 25, 2004
A retired Manhattan firefighter, on trial for stealing grisly "souvenirs" from Ground Zero, kept a macabre collection of body-part photographs from the tragedy - including a gilt-framed portrait of himself holding a human hip bone. (New York Post)

Freedom Tower Observation Deck Will Be 1,500 Feet Above Ground - Feb 25, 2004
The planned Freedom Tower will have an observation deck near its spire standing 1,500 feet above ground zero, the lead architect said Tuesday. (Associated Press)

New Look For Wall Street Security - Feb 25, 2004
The double ranks of pickup trucks that now control seven intersections leading to the New York Stock Exchange will be replaced with retractable posts, wedgelike vehicle barriers and custom-designed barricades resembling small sculptural bronze boulders. These and other elements of high-security landscaping, which were approved yesterday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, are intended to protect the exchange from terrorists without sacrificing the public realm to the almost warlike blockades, including the trucks, that have been in place since Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

Museum Displays Painting Of Children Who Lost Loved Ones On 9/11 - Feb 24, 2004
Two-and-a-half-year-old Andrew Cappers yesterday showed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg where his hand, dipped in paint and pressed against a small piece of canvas, had left its mark in memory of his father, James C. Cappers. Andrew's handprint appears in one of scores of canvas panels now on display at the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West, in an exhibit of work by children who lost their parents in the Sept. 11 attack and in the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. (New York Times)

Trial Begins For Ex-Firefighter Charged With Stealing From Ground Zero - Feb 24, 2004
Jury selection began yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the trial of a retired firefighter who is charged with stealing items from ground zero while working as a volunteer after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. (New York Times)

Federal Goverment Was Given Name Of 9/11 Hijacker Year Before Attack - Feb 24, 2004
American investigators were given the first name and telephone number of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers two and a half years before the attacks on New York and Washington, but the United States appears to have failed to pursue the lead aggressively, American and German officials say. (New York Times)

Roundup Of Public Comments On Ground Zero Environmental Impact - Feb 22, 2004
Community members spoke about the study, called the draft generic environmental impact statement, or d.g.e.i.s., at two public forums held on Feb. 18 at Pace University. More than 100 people attended the afternoon session, and 60 people testified at that session. Concerns were varied, and often contradicted one another. (Downtown Express)

As Donations For Statue Of Liberty Security Pour In, Estimate Of Cost Rises - Feb 22, 2004
First, the good news: $5.6 million in private funds has been raised to reopen the Statue of Liberty to visitors. Now, the bad news: The feds have revised their cost estimate upward and are saying it will take $7 million to redesign her interior for added security measures and exit routes. (New York Daily News)

Carrying On Projects Of Loved Ones Killed On 9/11 - Feb 22, 2004
They lost loved ones in the World Trade Center catastrophe, but within months of the towering act of hate and evil, their sorrow shifted to the resolution to do something positive. In the name of their father, brother, son or friend, they decided to build something or help someone, to give to the sick, the poor, the hungry and the needy. Through 9/11 benefits, fund-raising and other contributions, they carried on with the fallen ones' endeavors, or were inspired by them to find a new purpose. (New York Daily News)

Soldiers Make Homecoming Trip To Ground Zero - Feb 21, 2004
It was a homecoming of sorts Friday for 34 U.S. Army soldiers who took part in an informal tour of the area around Ground Zero. (Newsday)

Mayor Gently Criticizes Edwards For 9/11 Comment - Feb 21, 2004
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that Senator John Edwards was wrong when he suggested on Thursday that Republicans were holding their convention in New York to exploit the Sept. 11 tragedy, and that the city's economy was a shambles. But Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican, also softened his earlier criticism of Senator Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina, saying that his comments were "just political verbiage" and that he did not hold them against the senator. (New York Times)

New Spat Over Names On Memorial - Feb 20, 2004
Thomas Johnson, a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s board of directors, said yesterday at the organization's monthly meeting that he is "working hard" with "lots of people" to alter the plan to present names on the 9/11 memorial. He wants to remove the special designation given to rescue workers. (New York Daily News)

John Edwards Accuses President Of Exploiting 9/11 With New York Convention - Feb 20, 2004
Democratic underdog John Edwards kicked off the battle for New York yesterday with A-Rod quips and a charge that President Bush is trying to "exploit" the 9/11 tragedy at this coming summer's Republican convention here. (New York Post)

5,201 Memorial Designs Displayed On Internet - Feb 20, 2004
All 5,201 of the entries that the jury sifted through went on display at www.wtcsitememorial.org yesterday. Visitors to the site who signed on to second-guess the jury Ă‘ "How could they have overlooked that?" Ă‘ probably left with a new respect for the jurors' devotion and patience in going through the entire lot without pay. Visitors may also have left with a sense that the world cared, no matter how clumsy or inartful the expression. (New York Times)

Criticism For Ground Zero Development At Envirornmental Impact Hearing - Feb 19, 2004
Critics sharply attacked a draft environmental impact statement concerning the rebuilding at Ground Zero yesterday, challenging the report's main conclusion that the project poses no adverse effects. (Newsday)

Memorial Contestant Accuses Jury Of Fraud - Feb 19, 2004
One of the 5,200 losing competitors in the World Trade Center memorial design competition has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission alleging fraud and impropriety in the selection process, the Daily News has learned. (New York Daily News)

Mixed Reactions At Ground Zero Environmental Impact Hearing - Feb 19, 2004
The controversy that has surrounded nearly every aspect of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site spilled over to the project's impact on the environment yesterday as New Yorkers had their first chance to express concerns publicly about traffic, air pollution and the availability of public space. (New York Times)

Some Families Still Not Happy With Order Of Names On Memorial - Feb 19, 2004
It matters how large the voids will be that mark the twin towers. And it matters how the grounds will be landscaped and how the horror will be evoked by crushed fire trucks and twisted steel columns. But no issue at the World Trade Center memorial will be so vexing - perhaps even irreconcilable - as the smallest and most personal. The names. (New York Times)

Rumsfeld, Tenet To Testify Publicly For 9/11 Commission - Feb 18, 2004
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet will testify publicly next month in a federal commission probe into who should be held accountable for the Sept. 11 attacks. (Associated Press)

New School On Wall Street A Sign Of Neighborhood's Revivial - Feb 18, 2004
In the latest sign that downtown is bouncing back, the Wall Street area near Ground Zero is getting its first elite private school - just steps from the New York Stock Exchange, The Post has learned. (New York Post)

Federal Government Should Pay For Statue Of Liberty Security, Says Congressman - Feb 17, 2004
Rep. Anthony Weiner slammed President Bush yesterday for not including $5 million in his new $2.4 trillion budget to reopen the interior of the statue, which has been closed to visitors since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. (New York Daily News)

As State Security Agency Gets On Its Feet, Some Question Whether It Is Necessary - Feb 17, 2004
Set up by Gov. George E. Pataki in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to reassure a jittery public and shape the state's response to terrorist threats, the still-evolving state Office Of Public Security passes along to localities hundreds of millions in federal aid intended to shore up the nation's defense against terrorism. Yet more than two years after it was formed, few state legislators or members of the public know exactly what it does or how it operates, and some question whether it is even necessary. (New York Times)

A 9/11 Memorial For Hoboken - Feb 16, 2004
Two Downtown designers who have made their mark in Lower Manhattan are among the four finalists to design a memorial to the 57 Hoboken residents who died in the Sept. 11 attack. (Downtown Express)

College Acquires New Space, To Replace Building Damaged On 9/11 - Feb 16, 2004
The Borough of Manhattan Community CollegeÕs Fiterman Hall is still severely damaged from 9/11, but across the street, the school has just signed a 10-year lease so their students can move from temporary trailers back to regular classrooms this summer. (Downtown Express)

For Second Consecutive Winter, Pedestrian Bridges Aren't Up To Par - Feb 16, 2004
Despite Governor George Pataki's assurance that everything is being built on schedule at Ground Zero, people in wheelchairs and pushing strollers have no reliable, car-free way to cross the six-lane highway on West St. highway, for the second consecutive winter. (Downtown Express)

Plans For The Lobby At Seven World Trade - Feb 16, 2004
A computerized rendering of Seven World Trade Center, prepared by architects for WTC developer Larry Silverstein, shows a high-tech lobby of polished limestone and marble and shiny stainless steel columns, with revolving doors on Greenwich Street. (New York Post)

President Bush To Give Limited Testimony To 9/11 Commission - Feb 16, 2004
The White House said yesterday that President Bush plans to meet only with a limited number of representatives from the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite a statement issued Friday that suggested he would meet with the whole panel. (Washington Post)

Mexican National Vanished In Late 2001, But Was He Killed On September 11? - Feb 15, 2004
From the World Trade Center files, consider the confounding case of Arturo Alva Moreno, first listed as killed on 9/11, but then removed from the list of victims, despite the fact that he has vanished without a trace. Moreno did not leave enough footprints to prove that he was even in New York City, let alone at the trade center on the day of the attacks. It is one of six cases involving Mexican nationals, which are in similar circumstances. (Newsday)

Federal Government Stiffing New York On Funds For Police Communication, Says Senator - Feb 15, 2004
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused the federal government yesterday of once again stiffing New York City out of critical security funds, this time money needed to upgrade communications between the Fire and Police departments. (New York Daily News)

Police Department Prepares For Catastophe - Feb 15, 2004
The New York Police Department, working with city health officials, federal authorities and other agencies, has been preparing for a possible attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, perhaps the most daunting threat facing municipalities in a post-9/11 world. (New York Times)

Ground Zero Station Is PATH's Busiest - Feb 13, 2004
Exceeding early expectations, the World Trade Center PATH train station is now the busiest in the system, averaging more than 30,000 weekday riders since last month. (New Jersey Journal)

Flexing Muscles, City Calls Special Ground Zero Planning Meeting - Feb 13, 2004
The Bloomberg administration is reasserting itself into the rebuilding at Ground Zero, setting a special city planning session next month. The hearing is significant because it's one of the city's only chances to play a formal planning role in the World Trade Center site - which is owned by the Port Authority and under the sway of Gov. Pataki. (New York Daily News)

New Staten Island Ferry To Be Named 'The September 11' - Feb 13, 2004
One of the three new Staten Island ferries will be named The Sept. 11, Mayor Bloomberg announced last night. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Commission To Seek Bush Testimony - Feb 13, 2004
The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will soon ask President Bush, former President Clinton and their vice presidents to testify in public about possible warnings they might have received from U.S. intelligence sources before the attacks. (Associated Press)

Rebuilding Officials Say That World Trade Center Site, But Not Structural Remnants Of Buildings, Is Historic - Feb 13, 2004
The struggle between preservationists and rebuilding officials over ground zero escalated this week with a preliminary finding by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation that the site's location, setting, feeling and association - not the structural remnants of the World Trade Center - render it historic. (New York Times)

Memorial's Pools May Not Be Exact Outline Of Tower Footprints - Feb 12, 2004
Of all the symbolic designs at the World Trade Center site - the Wedge of Light, the 1,776-foot skyscraper, the birdlike PATH terminal - the most straightforward seemed to be the idea of pool-filled voids that would demarcate the outlines of the twin towers. But at ground zero, nothing is ever quite what it seems to be. And it appears that the voids will be smaller than the tower footprints they are supposed to represent. (New York Times)

Bloomberg: We Should Be Proud Of Being The World's Number One Terrorist Target - Feb 12, 2004
Congratulations, New Yorkers! We're the No. 1 target for terrorists - a distinction that should make us "proud," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

All 5,200 Rejected Memorial Designs To Be Displayed Online - Feb 12, 2004
The 5,200 Ground Zero memorial-design entries eliminated by a jury in favor of "Reflecting Absence" will be displayed on the Internet as early as next week. (New York Post)

9/11 Commission To Get Greater Access To Documents - Feb 11, 2004
The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will get greater access to classified intelligence briefings prepared for President Bush under an agreement announced Tuesday with the White House. (Associated Press)

Wife Of Man Who Made 9/11 Claim Alive In Florida - Feb 11, 2004
Donna Laskowski's name appears on the most recent list of victims whose relatives are seeking money from the federal September Eleventh Victim Compensation Fund. The problem is that 57-year-old Laskowski is alive in central Florida. (Associated Press)

15 Institutions Stay In Running For Arts Hub At Ground Zero - Feb 11, 2004
The Museum of the City of New York, the New York City Opera, the New-York Historical Society and the Signature Theater Company are among 15 cultural organizations that are the top contenders to inhabit a performing arts center at ground zero, or help create an interpretive museum there that will describe the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and 200.1 (New York Times)

Stewardess Identified Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show - Feb 11, 2004
The politically divided 9/11 commission was able to agree on a public airing of four and a half minutes from the Betty Ong tape, which the American public and most of the victimsÕ families heard for the first time on the evening news of Jan. 27. But commissioners were unaware of the crucial information given in an even more revealing phone call, made by another heroic flight attendant on the same plane, Madeline (Amy) Sweeney. They were unaware because their chief of staff, Philip Zelikow, chooses which evidence and witnesses to bring to their attention. Mr. Zelikow, as a former adviser to the pre-9/11 Bush administration, has a blatant conflict. (New York Observer)

College Wants To Demolish Building Damaged on 9/11 - Feb 11, 2004
Through much of the Ground Zero precinct, hope is measured in promise of construction. At Fiterman Hall, hope will take the form of demolition. (New York Times)

New York Police Department Sends Team To Moscow After Subway Bombing - Feb 10, 2004
This is not the first time the New York Police Department has sent units outside of the United States, as part of recent counter-terrorism efforts. Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, New York police have traveled to Britain, Canada and Israel. The New York Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement that the team's mission is to "observe and gather information on the Moscow subway bombing." (Baku Today)

Interview With Michael Arad, Memorial Designer - Feb 10, 2004
Michael Arad was helping design one of the world's tallest buildings when the September 11, 2001 attacks hit New York. An Israeli who grew up in Jerusalem, London, the US and Mexico, Arad watched firsthand as the Twin Towers collapsed and nearly 3,000 people perished. Soon after, before a design competition was announced, he began formulating a plan for memorializing the dead with a set of inaccessible, empty spaces on the Hudson River. (Jerusalem Post)

Interview With New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta - Feb 10, 2004
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta took command of New York City's 11,500 firefighters at a turbulent time. The department had suffered grievous losses on 9/11 when 343 firefighters perished. The people of New York have always had a special affection for the men and women of this department. After the World Trade Center attack, they were clearly New York's heroes. But ironically, recently, the department has been making another kind of news. A brawl in a Staten Island firehouse resulted in severe injury to one firefighter and charges that a superior officer tried to cover up the incident. A few days ago, a fire lieutenant and a captain were suspended for downing free drinks at an East Village bar. (WNBC)

New Proposal Would Move 9/11 Remains To Ellis Island - Feb 10, 2004
Some 9/11 victims' families are exploring a proposal to move the incinerated remains of their loved ones from a Staten Island garbage dump to a permanent burial site that would be created on Ellis Island. (Star Ledger)

Insurers Say Fax Proves That 9/11 Was A Single Event - Feb 10, 2004
On September 12, 2001, with four of his colleagues missing and presumed dead, Silverstein Properties insurance manager Robert Strachan faxed a letter to lenders and the Port Authority. From the start of the court case over how much insurance money Larry Silverstein is entitled to, the lead lawyer for the insurance companies, centered on the Strachan fax. (Newsday)

Ground Zero Photographer Sues After Falling Off Garbage Truck - Feb 10, 2004
A freelance photographer who suffered brain damage after falling off a garbage truck he climbed atop to take pictures of Ground Zero is suing the carting company for $50 million. (New York Daily News)

An Emotional Start To World Trade Center Insurance Battle - Feb 10, 2004
A lawyer for Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein choked up yesterday as he described the impact of the 9/11 attacks in front of a federal jury, accusing the Twin Towers insurers of "trying to rewrite history" to escape a nearly $7 billion payout for the disaster. (New York Post)

Court Case On Trade Center Insurance Opens, With Billions At Stake - Feb 09, 2004
Opening statements are expected to begin today in the long-brewing court battle between the developer Larry A. Silverstein and two dozen insurers over how much money will be available for rebuilding the vast commercial complex at the World Trade Center site. (New York Times)

Calatrava Receives Star Treatment At Community Board One - Feb 08, 2004
Community Board 1 has seen a number of celebrities over the years, but probably none of them received the amount of star-treatment afforded to renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, who politely signed a few autographs Wednesday after presenting his plan for the World Trade Center train station. (Downtown Express)

Residntial Liberty Bonds Close To Being Used Up - Feb 08, 2004
City and state officials said last week that the residential allotment of Liberty Bonds designed to rebuild Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack would likely run out by the programÕs original Dec. 31 deadline. (Downtown Express)

Debating The Options For Downtown Rail Links To Long Island - Feb 08, 2004
Downtown can count the last time it saw a new train service in terms of decades, nearly $3 billion has already been allocated in post-9/11 transportation projects and there is no definite plan to bring any new rail service to Lower Manhattan Ð at least not yet. State and city officials released four ways to build a link to the Long Island Rail Road and J.F.K. Airport on Wednesday and say they will come up with a plan and a way to pay for it by this April. (Downtown Express)

State Comptroller To Audit PATH Construction Costs - Feb 08, 2004
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi will audit the Port Authority's $566 million World Trade Center PATH station construction job to see whether cost overruns were justified and whether the project had proper oversight, his office says. (New York Post)

9/11 Commission Meets With Condoleezza Rice - Feb 07, 2004
The independent commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks met with Condoleezza Rice President Bush's national security adviser Saturday in an interview commissioners described as candid and productive. (Associated Press)

Ground Zero Merits Historic Status, Say Redevelopment Officials - Feb 07, 2004
History does not have to wait its customary half-century. Even now, the World Trade Center site merits inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, according to a determination made on Friday by three government agencies. (New York Times)

The Workings Of The 9/11 Commission - Feb 05, 2004
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has agreed to be interviewed by the bipartisan 9/11 commission on Feb. 7, after weeks of resistance from the White House to the bipartisan panelÕs requests, The Observer has learned. (New York Observer)

Families Of 9/11 Victims Unsatisfied With Extension Of Commission's Deadline - Feb 05, 2004
Bowing to pressure from a Sept. 11 survivors group, President Bush agreed yesterday to extend the deadline for the federal 9/11 commission report - but not as long as many wanted. Bush agreed to give the panel 60 extra days, until July 26, but relatives of victims killed in the terror attacks, and some members of Congress, wanted the extension to stretch beyond the elections. (New York Daily News)

Jury Set For World Trade Center Insurance Case - Feb 05, 2004
A Manhattan federal judge yesterday named five women and seven men to a jury in the $7 billion legal fight between developer Larry Silverstein and his Twin Towers insurance companies. (New York Post)

Four Options Presented For Airport Rail Link - Feb 05, 2004
In a presentation that was high in lofty ambitions but short on important details, officials unveiled four options yesterday for a rail link to connect Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island. (New York Times)

Bush, In Reversal, Supports More Time For 9/11 Commission - Feb 05, 2004
The White House reversed itself on Wednesday and said it would support a request from the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to extend its deadline until late July, even though that would mean the panel's final report would be released closer to the height of the presidential campaign. (New York Times)

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board Member Takes Job With Tribeca Film Group - Feb 04, 2004
She is on so many boards focusing on Lower Manhattan that it may seem like she has always had a fulltime job, but Madelyn Wils has just been hired by Robert De Niro and his film partners to become president and C.E.O. of the Tribeca Film Institute, and in February, she will start collecting her first regular paycheck in three years. (Downtown Express)

Several Options Considered To Bring Airtrain To Manhattan - Feb 04, 2004
Long-awaited plans for a train that would whisk airport travelers and suburbanites to lower Manhattan will be unveiled today, and officials vow they won't railroad subway riders. (New York Daily News)

Judge Says Bank Robber's Crimes Stemmed From 9/11 - Feb 03, 2004
A female bank robber dubbed "The Blond Bandit" landed just four years behind bars yesterday - after a judge ruled she has mental problems stemming from her volunteer work at Ground Zero. (New York Post)

Antiterror Budget Rises, But Critics Say System Still Shortchanges New York - Feb 03, 2004
The budget President Bush proposed on Monday would nearly double the pool of money that the federal government would set aside for the 2005 fiscal year to help defend New York City and other localities considered vulnerable to terrorist attacks. But his proposal did not include a major change that New York lawmakers had been demanding in the federal budget: a strict limit on the number of cities entitled to the money. (New York Times)

Rebuilding NYC February 2003


Practical Issues for Ground Zero - Feb 28, 2003
In the end, it was not so much about architecture, about solemn memorial pits or soaring gardens in the sky. Instead, the decision announced yesterday to choose Daniel Libeskind's design for the World Trade Center site revolved mainly around politics, economics and engineering, people close to the selection process said. (New York Times)

Vision for Lower Manhattan Is Still in Flux - Feb 28, 2003
As the winner of a grueling design competition, Daniel Libeskind was exuberant yesterday. Joseph Seymour, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the 16-acre site, was more pragmatic. In four years, Mr. Seymour said, he expects the memorial garden will be completed, as well as a $2 billion transit center that will rival Grand Central Terminal and newly built stretches of Greenwich and Fulton Streets that are to crisscross the site. But many other elements of Mr. Libeskind's striking plans, he said, are "going to have to evolve." (New York Times)

Silverstein Will Pay For Libeskind's Tower - Feb 28, 2003
Developer Larry Silverstein threw his support behind the soaring new vision for Ground Zero yesterday, vowing to pay for a 1,776-foot spire that would raise the city's skyline higher than any other in the world. Silverstein's commitment for the first time offered rebuilding officials a solid way to pay for the signature tower in architect Daniel Libeskind's plan. (New York Daily News)

Neighbors See New Plan As Roadblock - Feb 28, 2003
Architect Daniel Libeskind spoke passionately Thursday about his design for the World Trade Center site, using words such as democracy and freedom. But for Battery Park City resident Michael Kaufman, who has lived in the adjacent area for six years, the new plans seems to create a roadblock. (Newsday)

WTC Architect Sees 9/11 Memorial Within 4 Years - Feb 28, 2003
The architect named to redesign the World Trade Center site hopes a memorial, transit station and cultural buildings will be built within four years, although Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. officials Thursday said it could take longer. (Newsday)

Libeskind Comes Home to New York - Feb 28, 2003
It was the magnanimous Daniel Libeskind Ă‘ the adopted son of the great metropolis, the engaging former math and music wunderkind from the Bronx High School of Science Ă‘ who showed up at center stage in the Winter Garden yesterday to accept the most extraordinary commission that any city has ever offered. (New York Times)

Changes to Libeskind's Design - Feb 28, 2003
The scarred foundation of the World Trade Center shielded behind glass, a memorial pit 30 feet below street level, and a spindly spire with a 110th-floor restaurant - those are among the new twists in a rejiggered plan unveiled yesterday by winning Ground Zero architect Daniel Libeskind. (New York Post)

Libeskind Design Chosen for Rebuilding at Ground Zero - Feb 27, 2003
Officials overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan yesterday agreed to hire Studio Daniel Libeskind, the Berlin-based firm whose plan for the site centers on the excavated pit at the trade center, ringed by glass towers that swirl upward to a 1,776-foot spire. The Libeskind design was considered the front-runner for weeks, although a rival plan by an architecture team called Think, which featured two soaring latticework towers called the World Cultural Center, collected strong support as the decision neared. Ultimately, however, rebuilding officials voted in favor of Mr. Libeskind's somber treatment of the memorial and the incorporation of an active street life in the commercial portions of the site. (New York Times)

Battle Lines Harden Over W.T.C. Bus Garage - Feb 26, 2003
Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims clashed last week with Downtown residents and businesses over whether a proposed garage for tour buses built over the "footprints" of the Twin Towers would dishonor the victims. Conflicting priorities between residents and family members over the World Trade Center site have been apparent for some time, but rarely has the dispute come to the surface as clearly as it did last week and in a forum where both sides, roughly speaking, were equally represented. (Downtown Express)

Finalists for Ground Zero Design Pull Out the Stops - Feb 26, 2003
Packed meetings at Town Hall, get-out-the-vote e-mails and head-to-head chats with Charlie Rose may not be as rugged and ritualized as photo-ops in the South Bronx, but in many ways the architects proposing designs for the World Trade Center site have been acting like media-age politicians. The two finalists from an original pack of seven design teams Ñ Daniel Libeskind from Berlin and Rafael Vi–oly and Frederic Schwartz, the two front men on the Think team Ñ grasped the political nature of the selection process from the start, playing straight to the public as if the citizens of New York City were the clients for the job. (New York Times)

Panel Backs Think Team Design for Downtown - Feb 26, 2003
A key committee, led by Roland Betts, recommended yesterday that Lower Manhattan be rebuilt along the lines of a plan that had seemed out of favor, a proposal by the Think architectural team for two soaring latticework towers as the centerpiece of a memorial area. The unexpected decision appeared to set the stage for a showdown today among city and state officials. (New York Times)

THINK Team Trimming Plan - Feb 26, 2003
The underdogs in the race to redesign the World Trade Center site were reportedly working furiously in the last several days to reduce the cost of their proposal, making it more attractive to redevelopment officials. The proposal by the THINK team led by architects Rafael Vi–oly and Frederic Schwartz originally was estimated to cost as much as $800 million. Architect Daniel LibeskindÕs proposal, supposedly the favorite of Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, costs $330 million. (Newsday)

Vinoly: High Drama - Feb 25, 2003
Rafael Vi–oly landed on the short list of the world's most hotly pursued architects in 1989, when he defeated 394 contenders in an international competition to design the Tokyo International Forum. The $1.5-billion performing arts and convention center -- a huge glass and steel structure frequently described as a great ship gliding through the central city -- opened in 1997 to widespread acclaim. Since that spectacular success, Vi–oly has snagged dozens of large commissions, but his achievements so far are merely a warmup for the current competition to design a replacement for the World Trade Center in New York. (Los Angeles Times)

Ground Zero: Picking a Plan and a Direction - Feb 25, 2003
The two teams that have been chosen as finalists offer a chance to sort through our ambitions for the site. Their plans are polar opposites. For the architects, the real challenge will be to deal with the complex history of the site. The Twin Towers aggressively muscled their way into Lower Manhattan, interrupting the city's street grid. Yet the destruction of these unpopular buildings was even more horrible and aggressive. In order to truly heal the wound the terrorists created, the design also must attempt to repair old scars. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

WTC Finalists Step Up Lobbying - Feb 25, 2003
The conversations about "sacred ground" and "soaring memorials" have denigrated to sniping and snide remarks.Finalists Daniel Libeskind and the THINK team led by Rafael Vi–oly have stepped up - or brought down - their behind-the-scenes lobbying as they prepared to present their revised work before redevelopment officials today. (Newsday)

Officials Plan New Memorial to '93 Attack - Feb 25, 2003
State officials said yesterday that they would erect a temporary memorial to the victims of the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center and that it would include a fragment of the original memorial, which was destroyed in the collapse of the twin towers in 2001. The announcement came two days before the 10th anniversary of the bombing, which killed six people (New York Times)

Insider Expected to Head LMDC - Feb 25, 2003
Gov. George Pataki has selected another Albany insider to lead the lower Manhattan rebuilding effort when the current president leaves this week, sources say. Pataki has chosen Kevin Rampe, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s executive vice president and general counsel, to become president of the agency overseeing the World Trade Center site redevelopment, say sources familiar with the process. (Newsday)

Building Repair Work Begins At Ground Zero - Feb 25, 2003
Repair work will start soon to fix a jagged gash across the front of the mold-infested Deutsche Bank building, but the company said no final decision has been made about what to do with the black-draped structure that looms over Ground Zero. (New York Post)

New York Times at Center of Architectural Nightmare - Feb 24, 2003
The New York Times is at the center of an "architectural blood-feud" over the selection of a finalist to design the World Trade Center site, Clay Risen reports in The New Republic. (The New Republic)

Officials To Announce Winning Design For WTC - Feb 24, 2003
On Thursday the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will announce the winning design to be the basis for reconstruction at the World Trade Center site. The two finalists, Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind and the New York-centered consortium known as Think, have spent the last three weeks revamping their ideas to answer certain concerns of rebuilding officials. The deadline for their final proposals is Tuesday. (NY1)

WTC Project Coming Down To The Wire - Feb 24, 2003
In the coming week, one of two designs for the World Trade Center site is slated to be chosen. While those close to the process are speculating that the design of Daniel Libeskind has won over the plan devised by the THINK team of architects, development officials insisted last week they wonÕt decide until theyÕve seen the latest versions of the proposals. (Newsday)

Libeskind: Building Resolve - Feb 23, 2003
Daniel Libeskind digs in as the contest to design the replacement for the World Trade Center winds down. It's a project calling for vision -- and the will to ride out competitors' gibes. Libeskind knows his bid for the New York project may be in vain. The Think design may win, or neither get built. In either case, the Libeskinds are moving to New York. (Los Angeles Times)

Manhattan Ready to Pick Libeskind's Jagged Towers - Feb 22, 2003
The design of one of the world's most versatile and celebrated architects, Daniel Libeskind, is expected to be chosen as the replacement for the World Trade Centre buildings, although some of its central features are likely to be either radically altered or left out. In an increasingly fraught process, which has been dominated by inter-agency rivalry and public disaffection, Libeskind had to apologise on Thursday for voicing sharp criticism of his rival's plans in a live internet forum. (Guardian)

World Trade Center Design Finalist Criticizes Competitor - Feb 21, 2003
Ground Zero design finalist Daniel Libeskind Thursday criticized the other finalist in the competition to redevelop the site. Ă’There is a dramatic and urgent need to repair the skyline,Ă“ Libeskind wrote in an online conversation with Gothamgazette.com. Ă’I do not believe that two skeletons in the sky asserts the vitality of New York or the courage of America. I do believe that a distinctive and economically viable skyline has to be built.Ă“ (Newsday)

WTC Plan May End Up Looking Very Different From Architect Vision - Feb 21, 2003
Development officials are expected to pick the Ground Zero plan by architect Daniel Libeskind - but the new World Trade Center is likely to end up looking a lot different from the way he envisioned it. And that will come as a huge surprise to many New Yorkers, who had been led to expect that the buildings that go up on the city's hallowed ground will look just the way they do in the models that have been debated for weeks. Officials see Libeskind's plan as flexible, something they can shape to their needs. (New York Post)

Woman Faces New Charges of Falsely Obtaining 9/11 Funds - Feb 21, 2003
A Manhattan businesswoman who had been charged with stealing money from agencies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack was indicted for a second time yesterday on new charges of using her business to falsely obtain emergency funds. State prosecutors in Manhattan said the woman, Beatrice Kaufman, 68, falsely claimed that her business, an employment agency for lawyers, was damaged by the terrorist attack and collected thousands of dollars from two charities, the Red Cross and Safe Horizon. (New York Times)

Port Authority's New Budget Reflects the Times - Feb 21, 2003
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday approved a $5 billion expense and capital budget not much larger than last year's, reflecting the region's flagging economy and the new security and rebuilding demands on the agency since the attack on the World Trade Center. (New York Times)

Broadway Atrium in Plan for 750M Transit Hub - Feb 21, 2003
A sweeping glass atrium opening onto Broadway would greet more than 275,000 commuters a day in lower Manhattan, according to drawings for a new transit hub. The schemes for the $750 million Fulton Transit Center, obtained by the Daily News, show a bright and airy hub that would be a drastic upgrade from the current bleak, mazelike subway complex. The hub, scheduled to be completed by 2007, is expected to be among the transit projects to receive federal funding stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Support Builds for One Plan for Trade Center Site: Libeskind - Feb 20, 2003
State and city officials involved in choosing a design for the World Trade Center site have begun lining up in favor of a plan by Studio Daniel Libeskind, which uses the ground zero pit as the setting for a memorial to victims of the terrorist attack, giving that plan important momentum in the week before the final site plan is chosen. (New York Times)

Twin Towers Fund To Close Later This Year - Feb 20, 2003
The Twin Towers Fund - created by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to help the families of the heroes of 9/11 - will close up shop later this year, organizers said yesterday. Fund officials said the organization had been set up to distribute the huge outpouring of financial support for the families of uniformed rescue workers who lost their lives, or were seriously injured, in the World Trade Center tragedy. (New York Post)

German Court Convicts Moroccan For Involvement In WTC Attack - Feb 20, 2003
New Yorkers who lost family members at the World Trade Center said Wednesday they were pleased that a German court convicted a Moroccan student of being an accessory to murder in the terrorist attacks. "I'm thrilled," said Joan Molinaro, who testified last month at the trial of Mounir el Motassadeq in Hamburg. "He's only one person, but one's better than none. It's justice for my son and 3,000 other victims." (Newsday)

WTC Federal Aid Program Plagued By Scams - Feb 20, 2003
As many as 90% of the people who applied to a $100 million federal program to clean apartments of World Trade Center dust were scam artists, officials admitted yesterday. Some of the 219,000 applications - seeking reimbursement for items to purify their air of WTC dust - were from people who lived several miles away from Ground Zero, officials said. (New York Daily News)

Downtown's Future Will Be Determined Soon - Feb 19, 2003
The long-term viability of Lower Manhattan will be determined in less than two weeks if you believe the many analysts who say improving transportation is the key to downtown's future. Officials from the various agencies with a stake in transportation or in the land in and near ground zero are expected to make most of the final transportation decisions by the end of February, when the street plan for the World Trade Center site is also selected. (Downtown Express)

A Slow, Deliberate Process of Weighing 9/11 Awards - Feb 18, 2003
High above the streets of Manhattan, one judge presides over a deeply intimidating institution: the unofficial Supreme Court for the families of Sept. 11 victims. There are no gavels or robes, no jurors or bailiffs. Sometimes, only one relative shows up for a businesslike proceeding that can be as brief as 15 minutes. Sometimes, though, there can be an entire battalion of relatives, lawyers and forensic experts who fold heartbreaking videos and head-hurting statistical presentations into two-and-a-half-hour crucibles during which even foreign-language interpreters have been moved to tears. (New York Times)

Rockaway Artist's Tribute Will Honor Victims of World Trade Center Attack - Feb 17, 2003
Drawing on a variety of materials and themes, 40 artists submitted entries for a memorial to the 70 residents of the Rockaways, including many firefighters, who lost their lives at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Though entries were submitted from as far away as Greece, the winning design came from a local artist. "The Heavens Over the Rockaways" was designed by stained-glass artist Patrick Clark of Rockaway Park. (Newsday)

Trade Center Developer Objects to City's Insurance Talks - Feb 16, 2003
Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the World Trade Center lease, claims that his effort to get the largest possible insurance settlement to rebuild Lower Manhattan is being undermined by city officials. With public officials on the verge of adopting a development proposal for the site, Mr. Silverstein has complained in recent weeks that despite his legal obligation to rebuild the trade center he has been shut out of the planning process. At the same time, he said he has been undermined in his negotiations with the 23 insurance companies that provided coverage for the trade center. (New York Times)

Mayor Prefers WTC Plan By Libeskind - Feb 15, 2003
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said he prefers the Ground Zero plan by Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind, which leaves much of the pit open as a memorial space. The mayor's remarks on his weekly radio show were the first time a major elected official has voiced a preference on the two remaining designs. (New York Post)

9/11's Hard Lessons Lead Agency to Urge Tougher Building Code - Feb 15, 2003
Trying to apply the lessons learned at a terrible cost on Sept. 11, 2001, the New York City Buildings Department yesterday outlined a future in which office towers could have larger, sturdier and more numerous stairwells; full sprinkler systems; and better protected ductwork. (New York Times)

Trade Center Would Keep Retail Space Underground - Feb 14, 2003
Plans for an underground concourse at the World Trade Center would allow for the building of several hundred thousand square feet of retail space below ground, or nearly as much as existed at the site before the 2001 attack, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said yesterday. Testifying at a City Council hearing, the officials said that no decisions had been made yet about how the retail space at the trade center would be divided between above and below ground. (New York Times)

Silverstein Says Mayor's Plan to Use Insurance Billions Is Unworkable - Feb 14, 2003
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein told Mayor Bloomberg yesterday that a City Hall proposal to take over his insurance billions is unworkable, sources told The Post. The private meeting with the mayor came as Silverstein, who signed a 99-year lease on the trade center just weeks before the Sept. 11 terror attack, is seeking a more visible role in the planning process. (New York Post)

Polish Immigrant Gives Life Savings to NYC After 9/11 - Feb 14, 2003
A field in Chinatown's Columbus Park will be renovated thanks to a Polish immigrant who donated his entire life savings to New York City - even though he lived more than 1,000 miles away. Joseph Temeczko, who came to America through Ellis Island and once worked at the Statue of Liberty, bequeathed $1.4 million to New York. Temeczko told his lawyer to amend his will just one week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He died the following month after suffering a heart attack in the backyard of his Minnesota home. (New York Daily News)

Interviewers In 9/11 Oral History Project Were Changed By Experience - Feb 14, 2003
About a year ago, 30 interviewers armed with tape-recorders and resolute curiosity fanned out across New York City, seeking true-life stories of 9/11. The 449 accounts they came back with, on more than 400 hours of tape, captured the horror, and sometimes, the spiritual transcendence of those days. But something else happened, too. The interviewers, working for Columbia University's 9/11 Oral History Narrative and Memory Project, became entangled themselves in the stories they'd heard. (New York Times)

Silverstein May Seek Office Space Away From WTC - Feb 14, 2003
Twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein may be open to recapturing some of the 10 million square feet of office space lost in the terror attacks by acquiring nearby properties. Sources said the possibility was discussed in a meeting between Mayor Bloomberg and Silverstein, who has maintained that any new development at Ground Zero must allow him to recoup all of the lost office space. (New York Daily News)

Libeskind Acolytes Attack Muschamp and the Times - Feb 13, 2003
Ever since crews began clearing debris from Ground Zero, the strong and sometimes acerbic writing of The New York TimesÕ architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp, has helped trigger a citywideÑand worldwideÑdebate over what should stand at the site of New YorkÕs greatest civic disaster. Some within the architectural community are charging that Mr. Muschamp exhibited a conflict of interest in his read-by-everyone review in the Feb. 6 Times, which promoted the two-tower Ground Zero plan helmed by an architect he knows and has worked with - Rafael Vi–oly of the THINK group - while aggressively diminishing the other, Daniel LibeskindÕs single-tower, "bathtub"-preserving design. (New York Observer)

Ground Zero Designers Are Asked for Revisions - Feb 13, 2003
The two teams of architects working on designs for the World Trade Center site have been asked to modify their plans to address engineering problems in the pit at the site, according to people involved in the rebuilding effort. In the two weeks since the two finalists were announced, both teams, Studio Daniel Libeskind and Think, have been asked to change their designs to make room for parking, public transit and other purposes in the "bathtub," the seven-acre hole on the western half of ground zero, beneath the spots where the twin towers stood. (New York Times)

Ground Zero Foundations Will Need to Be Covered and Reinforced - Feb 13, 2003
Most of the scarred and decaying wall inside the Ground Zero pit is in such bad shape it will need to be covered with a three-foot layer of concrete and braced with steel reinforcements, Port Authority officials said yesterday. Engineers are studying the wall to find out if any portions are strong enough to be displayed in a future WTC memorial, as called for in one of the design proposals being considered by development officials. (New York Post)

Port Authority: We Will Have To Use the Pit - Feb 13, 2003
The vast pit at Ground Zero - the area where most of the remains of victims of the terror were recovered - cannot be left empty, top Port Authority officials said yesterday. Port Authority Executive Director Joseph Seymour said the foundation for a memorial - as well as transit infrastructure and probably a parking garage for buses - will be placed within the 70-foot-deep ditch. (New York Daily News)

Downtown Express: Interviews with the W.T.C. Architects - Feb 12, 2003
Downtown Express interviewed Daniel Libeskind and Frederic Schwartz to find out their views of the site and to learn what types of modifications they are making. Schwartz was more willing to talk about specific changes. They were both reluctant to criticize the other's plan, although Libeskind did take a passing swipe at THINK's concept. Both dismissed the common criticism that "none of these buildings will ever be built" and expressed confidence in the process. They also felt their plans provide a feasible way to build structures taller than the Twin Towers, and far from seeking an extension about the pending deadline, they were looking forward to it. (Downtown Express)

Pataki Backs West St. Tunnel in Letter - Feb 12, 2003
Gov. George Pataki wrote that the state is likely to build a tunnel on part of West St./Route 9A, in a letter requesting $5 billion in federal transportation funds to rebuild Lower Manhattan. "[S]afe pedestrian across West St. will be restored. Such restoration will likely occur through the tunneling of some portion of Route 9A," Pataki wrote to Joseph Albaugh, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Jennifer Dorn, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. (Downtown Express)

Designs Leave Blanks for 9/11 Memorial Contest to Fill - Feb 12, 2003
When rebuilding officials selected the finalists for the design of the World Trade Center site, their choices instantly raised a difficult question: In light of the finalists' designs for memorials to victims of the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, what is left for a memorial competition? Plenty, according to the architects. They say their site plans -- Daniel Libeskind's, with a deep pit remaining at ground zero, and the Think group's plan, featuring tall cultural towers -- offer acres of space, spread over multiple parts of the site, that could be the subject of the memorial competition. (Select one or type in another)

Federal Government Allots $90 Million for Ground Zero Health Study - Feb 12, 2003
The feds will set aside $90 million to pay for health screening for hundreds of firefighters and other heroes who rushed to Ground Zero after 9/11, officials said yesterday. The funding should insure that Mount Sinai and other hospitals can study and track the long-term health of scores of first responders - some of whom are beginning to report lung and breathing woes they attribute to Ground Zero. (Select one or type in another)

Silverstein's Low Opinion of WTC Designs Tall Towers - Feb 12, 2003
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein yesterday criticized the signature elements of the two remaining Ground Zero site plans. "I don't understand those latticework towers, how they would be utilized," Silverstein said of the THINK architecture team's plan, which calls for two steel structures taller than the original Twin Towers. Silverstein said he is very concerned about erecting buildings more than 60 stories tall - because it is difficult for people to evacuate them in an emergency. (New York Post)

Silverstein Says WTC Insurance Billions Must Be Used for Office Buildings - Feb 11, 2003
Twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein insisted yesterday that billions of dollars in insurance money for the World Trade Center must be used to rebuild office buildings - and nothing else. "There's no way that you can take insurance company money for office buildings and allocate it for some other use," Silverstein said at a meeting with Daily News editors and reporters. (New York Daily News)

$90 Million in Federal Aid for Ground Zero Workers Expected To Be Approved - Feb 11, 2003
Millions of dollars in federal aid to monitor the long-term health of Ground Zero workers is expected to be approved this week -- after being tied up for months by partisan sparring. Congressional leaders and the White House inserted the $90 million yesterday into the 2003 omnibus spending package. (New York Daily News)

Families Angry At Plan To Put Bus Garage in WTC Pit - Feb 11, 2003
Secretive plans to turn part of the World Trade Center "bathtub" into a bus garage could put development officials on a collision course with angry family members who consider the Ground Zero pit sacred space. The decision - and the reluctance to talk about it publicly - has angered relatives of 9/11 victims who have been calling for months for the WTC pit to be declared off-limits to all development down to bedrock. (New York Post)

Construction Forging Ahead at WTC location - Feb 10, 2003
For a place supposedly mired in a long planning process, the World Trade Center site seems awfully busy these days. The site is thronged with workers in hard hats, crowded with trailers and vehicles and buzzing with the sounds of construction. On the north side of the site, workers have dug some 40 feet into the ground, placed supporting caissons, and started to pour concrete for the foundations of the new 7 World Trade Center. (Newsday)

Pataki Presents Washington With A $5 Billion Transit Plan - Feb 8, 2003
Gov. George E. Pataki outlined a long-awaited plan yesterday to spend up to $5 billion to restore and upgrade transportation in Lower Manhattan, including new above-ground hubs at the World Trade Center site and at the Fulton Street subway stations, as well as a rebuilt subway terminal at South Ferry. (New York Times)

Agencies Jockey for Control Over Future of Ground Zero Design - Feb 7, 2003
With the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation only weeks away from adopting a long-sought plan for the World Trade Center site, a struggle is taking place over just how much of the grand designs will ever be built, a struggle that is connected to the future of the agency. (New York Times)

White House in Tentative Deal on New York 9/11 Rescue Package - Feb 7, 2003
The Bush administration has tentatively agreed to provide up to $980 million that New York City and state officials had counted on to help close multibillion dollar budget deficits, according to New York and federal officials involved in the negotiations. The agreement taking shape would give about $350 million to the state and about $630 million to the city, with fewer restrictions than normally govern such emergency aid. The money would be drawn from the federal funds that had been allocated in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

City Medical Examiner Now Can ID Hijackers Remains - Feb 7, 2003
The FBI has given the city medical examiner's office DNA profiles from the 10 hijackers who crashed planes into the Twin Towers so their remains can be separated from those of their victims, officials said yesterday. (New York Post)

Silverstein Meets With Architects - Feb 7, 2003
A week after he slammed the design proposals and warned development officials not to leave him out of the loop, World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein is back in the mix. The 71-year-old developer met Wednesday with Rafael Vinoly of THINK - one of two teams of architects picked this week to compete for the job of WTC planner. (New York Post)

WTC Designs Do Not Include Tallest "Structures" - Feb 6, 2003
This may seem like the height of hairsplitting, but many newspapers got it wrong Wednesday when they reported that the two finalists in the competition to design a replacement for the World Trade Center would be the world's tallest structures. The accounts neglected the very big, very cold country just to America's north, where in the city of Toronto is the CN Tower, which soars to 1,815 feet, 5 inches, taller than either the Libeskind or THINK plans would go. (Chicago Tribune)

Two Firms Vie At WTC Site - Feb 6, 2003
After responding to a series of requests for modifications to their designs over the next two weeks, one of the two new finalists will emerge as the architect of the rebuilt World Trade Center. But whether or not the vision of that architect translates into real buildings erected at Ground Zero over the next decade may not be a matter for the public to decide. If the architect selected by the LMDC and the Port Authority is really to leave his stamp on the World Trade Center site, the LMDC will have to back up its claim to be the ultimate authority in the rebuilding process. (New York Observer)

Map Becomes Clearer in Trade Center Choices - Feb 6, 2003
Now that the designs for ground zero have been reduced to two finalists, it is possible to understand better what the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have in mind for ground zero and the surrounding blocks. Aside from the aesthetic eloquence in the Libeskind and Think proposals, both offer a framework for intense commercial development. (New York Times)

Web Campaigns Against WTC Plans Begin - Feb 6, 2003
The Internet campaigns against the two visions for Ground Zero have begun. One day after redevelopment officials selected Studio Daniel Libeskind and the THINK team as finalists to redesign the World Trade Center site, critics have launched e-mail initiatives to criticize the plans, warn of danger or pitch their own designs. (Newsday)

City Must Release 9/11 Information, Judge Rules - Feb 6, 2003
The city must turn over hundreds of documents and transcripts detailing the Fire Department's response to the World Trade Center attacks - but don't expect anything right away. The Bloomberg administration said yesterday it would appeal the judge's order, effectively keeping the records under wraps for several more months. (New York Daily News)

Two Finalists Are Selected for the Void at Ground Zero - Feb 5, 2003
Two teams of architects, one that sees the foundations of democracy in the concrete walls surrounding ground zero and another that imagines New York's rebirth in soaring towers of culture, have been selected as finalists in the competition to create the design for the World Trade Center site, rebuilding officials said yesterday. (New York Times)

2 WTC Plans Chosen, But Neither Plan Is In Final Form - Feb 5, 2003
The contestants vying to redevelop the World Trade Center site were narrowed to two Tuesday, but even after a winner is chosen, the look of the structures that will finally emerge from Ground Zero is likely to be a work in progress. (Newsday)

2 Finalists Picked for WTC Site - Feb 5, 2003
A pair of dramatically different visions for Ground Zero - one that evokes the original twin towers and another that preserves the scarred foundation of the World Trade Center - were embraced as finalists by rebuilding officials yesterday. For the first time since the struggle to resurrect lower Manhattan began more than a year ago, officials also defined the area for a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Sometimes Artful PR Campaigns Helped Firms - Feb 5, 2003
It may be coincidence, but the two architectural teams selected yesterday in the World Trade Center site competition made it their mission to woo as many people as possible at public hearings and private meetings over the past seven weeks. Rafael Vi–oly and Frederick Schwartz, leaders of the THINK team, showed up at almost every public hearing last month, including a community board meeting. Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind ran a similar campaign. He also met with a number of groups that had been critical of the planning process. (Newsday)

For Ground Zero Planners, Tough Job Begins - Feb 5, 2003
Now that two Ground Zero finalists have been chosen, the toughest work begins for those who will choose the master plan. By the end of this month, officials must decide everything from specifics about where office buildings will stand to the exact memorial space. Decisions also await on what streets will once again run through the 16-acre site, and on below-ground infrastructure. Those decisions, which the Port Authority has been studying for months, will largely affect what gets built. (New York Daily News)

Trade Center Developer Is Portrayed in Court as Calculating - Feb 5, 2003
Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who controls the World Trade Center, has fought for the past 17 months with his insurance companies, claiming that there were two terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, requiring a double payment, nearly $7 billion, for the rebuilding effort. But in the latest courtroom skirmish, Silverstein is portrayed in a brief filed yesterday by Swiss Re, the largest of the 23 insurers at the trade center, as coldly choosing a strategy calculated to reap the most money possible from the catastrophe while the ruins of the trade center were still smoldering. (New York Times)

New WTC Finalists Chosen, To Be Announced Later Today - Feb 4, 2003
Redevelopment officials apparently chose finalists for the World Trade Center site Monday night during a three-hour meeting, although they declined to comment on specific details. (Newsday)

Mayor Declines Question On Whether Taylor Should Head LMDC - Feb 4, 2003
Mayor Bloomberg had few words yesterday when asked if his girlfriend - Diana Taylor - should be named the next president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., an idea floated by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (New York Daily News)

Time to Pick Finalists For Redesign of WTC - Feb 3, 2003
This week, a committee of state, local, Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. officials will choose two or three finalists from the six remaining teams. They will select a winner sometime this month. Tara Snow, LMDC's vice president for government affairs, said community comments "told us what people thought was important." About 100,000 people have come to see the plans at the Winter Garden exhibit since it opened Dec. 19. There have been 8 million visits to the Web site (www.renewnyc.com). More than 6,000 people wrote down their comments at the exhibit, while another 4,000 registered their views via e-mail. (Newsday)

Victims' Families Criticize Silverstein For Trying To Take Control of WTC Site - Feb 2, 2003
Relatives of those who perished in the World Trade Center terror attack rapped twin towers leaseholder Larry Silverstein yesterday for trying to grab control of the site's rebirth. "It's like throwing a monkey wrench into the works," said Lee Ielpi, who lost his firefighter son, Jonathan. (New York Daily News)

A Bittersweet Honor for a 9/11 Victim - Feb 2, 2003
In a few weeks, Roger and Rosalie Marti will be able to look out the front window of their brick twin home in Glendale, Queens, and see a green and white street sign on the corner that says Michael A. Marti Street. Since the terrorist attack, the City Council is renaming 217 streets after people who died at the World Trade Center, most in Queens and Staten Island. If bereaved families continue putting in requests, there could be more. (New York Times)

Trade Center Leaseholder Says He Has Right to Rebuild as He Wants - Feb 1, 2003
Days before city and state officials are scheduled to narrow the design competition for the World Trade Center site to two architecture teams, Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who holds the lease to the property, charged yesterday that rebuilding officials were ignoring his right to rebuild the site as he sees fit. (New York Times)



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