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"As Tall As The Towers, Or Taller"

Louis Epstein, an Internet businessman from Carmel, N.Y.

"It's absolutely inconceivable to me that they would rebuild without rebuilding the towers. It's like deserting your dead in the battlefield."

Bryan Murphy, a resident of lower Manhattan

"The site is hallowed ground. So something on the scale of the Twin Towers must be built here."

Jonathan Hakala, once worked on the 77th floor of one of the towers

"I had an office on the 77th floor of one world trade. Like so many people here, I lost my best friend, Michael Taylor, and many other good people. Please do not diminish the memory of all of these good people by building 50-, 60-, or 70-story mediocre buildings on the site. Please, if you are going to put buildings on that site, build one of the seven modern wonders of the world.

And please, give us a skyline that will once again cause our spirits to soar. I know a lot of this often comes down to dollars and sense. There are multibillion dollar implications in all of this for our tourist industry. People from all over the world for many decades to come are going to judge what we do here these next few years.

If you have the courage and the wisdom and the judgement to build one of those seven modern wonders of the world they will recognize for many decades to come that we remain the capital of the world. And if you do that, please save a little bit of space on the 77th floor."

A representative from an organization called team twin towers (www.teamtwintowers.com), wearing a t-shirt from his group:

"Ultimately we believe that the greatest tribute for the people who died is to rebuild the towers. How can we, as the skyscraper capital of the world, think about building 50 or 60 story buildings there? What kind of message does that send? It's extremely important for New York to show its resilience, to send a message to the rest of the world that we stand tall."

Robert Siegel

I am here tonight in support of verticality, verticality in spirit as well as architecture. When we rebuild, it must not be with bunkers in which to cower and go about our business. Now more than ever we need to celebrate verticality. And never change the name. It's the World Trade Center and it always should be. Make it as safe as money allows, and make it aesthetically beautiful. I used to work in 4 World Trade and that place was a dump.

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