Friday, June 20
Next month, workers will begin taking down the damaged Deutsche Building south of the World Trade Center site, long covered with black netting, according to news reports. Since 9/11, the bank had been in negotiations with its insurance companies over the future of the building. Although the bank has not officially announced that the building will be destroyed, last week the bank reached an agreement with the lead insurer that would allow the demolition of the building to begin.
Rebuilding officials reached an agreement on Wednesday giving architect Daniel Libeskind control over the design guidelines for the new transportation terminal at Ground Zero. Libeskind's firm will design the main hall in the transit station. The extent that the architect will be involved in the design of the 1,776-foot tower planned for the World Trade Center site is still being negotiated with leaseholder Larry Silverstein.
Earlier this week, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation also announced three new board members and made Kevin Rampe, who had served as interim president since early this year, the agency's permanent president.
Governor George Pataki told victims family members at a private meeting last week that he is personally against the proposed plan to build a bus garage underneath the 9/11 memorial. The governor told family members that he had asked rebuilding officials to look for alternate places to park the many buses that will bring visitors to and from the World Trade Center site.
Friday, June 13
A coalition of rebuilding civic groups held a news conference on June 11,
urging officials to protect architect Daniel Libeskind's design for the
World Trade Center site. The Civic Alliance said that the design has been
"subject to attack from all sides," including a proposal to build one
million square feet of retail space, leaseholder Larry Silverstein's call
for another office tower and the push by downtown residents to bring the
memorial space up to street level. The Civic Alliance released photos of how
these changes could alter Libeskind's design, the images are available on the coalition's website.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced at its June 12 board meeting that it will hold a series of community meetings about how to
spend the remaining $1.3 billion in federal rebuilding funds in its coffers.
At the meeting, affordable housing advocates called on the development
corporation to use the money to build mixed income housing.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that part of the development corporation's
remaining funds should go to pay for his vision for downtown, including
remaking the East River waterfront and building affordable housing. Governor
George Pataki, however, has suggested that the money should go towards
building transportation improvements.
Friday, June 6
At a May 28 public hearing, firefighters and their relatives told
members of the jury selecting a design for the 9/11 memorial that the
design must list the affiliations of fire fighters, police officers and
rescue workers who died in the World Trade Center attacks. Some, holding
up signs that said, "they went in together, let them stay together,"
said that the firefighters who died should be listed together with the
members of their company, not listed alphabetically.
The Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation has said that the memorial shall be
created "without hierarchy," but the memorial competition's rules do not
specifically bar designers from including a victim's job, rank or title.
The deadline for registering to enter the design competition was May 29.
Those who registered will have until June 30 to submit their designs.
Family members of firefighters who died at the World Trade Center
catastrophe are about to file a lawsuit requiring the Port Authority and
other developers of the World Trade Center site to be legally bound by
city fire and building codes. Those involved say the goal of the suit is
not to oppose reconstruction of the World Trade Center site, but to
assure that the safest possible building is built at Ground Zero. For
more on the suit, see the story on Rebuilding NYC.
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