Commentary/Opinion/Ideas Getting it Right at Ground Zero - September 2, 2002 In an essay in Time Magazine's September 11 anniversary issue, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani writes that he is still "as shocked, angry and resolute" as he was a year ago, and calls for all 16-acres of the World Trade Center site to be preserved as a memorial. "Ground zero is a cemetery. It is the last resting place for loved ones whose bodies were not recovered and whose remains are still within that hallowed ground. We must respect the role these events play in our history," he writes. (Time) Lower Manhattan Needs Housing Fairness - August 27, 2002 In using federal rebuilding funds for luxury housing, Gov. George Pataki is "squandering a unique opportunity for residential development of Lower Manhattan that would provide the city with desperately needed affordable housing and enable it to reinvigorate its economy," David R. Jones and Ron Shiffman write in Newsday today. (Newsday) A Global City Rebuilt - August 22, 2002 "Rebuilding downtown is not simply a matter of replicating nice old streets and putting up medium-sized office buildings," writes Paul Spencer Byard in the Times today. "Rebuilding downtown is about rebuilding New York as a seat of useful power for action in the world." Bringing the United Nations, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund downtown could accomplish this, he writes. (New York Times) Make it a National Park - August 9, 2002 "By making the memorial a stunningly low priority in their plans for the World Trade Center site, the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. have lost their opportunity to build it," writes Jack Lynch, vice president of the 9/11 Widows and Victims Families Association, in the Daily News today. The National Park Service, which has much more experience in creating memorials, should take over, he writes. (New York Daily News) Solace in the Stars - August 1, 2002 "The city is now pondering what to build as a memorial to those killed on Sept. 11. Most of the talk is about a monument at the World Trade Center site. But perhaps the families of those who died may also find comfort in something smaller and more personal," writes Gabriella De Ferrari in the Times today. "We could build each family a bench to be placed in a spot of their choosing for their own observatory, a place to meditate and think of those who died." (New York Times) Downtown Deserves Better - August 1, 2002 "The fate of downtown Manhattan is too important to be left to the engineers at the Port Authority, who have no interest in New York City, only in their own revenue stream," writes the New York Observer in an editorial this week. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki should work to win our loyalty by making sure "that downtown Manhattan becomes a prime residential neighborhood, and not just an office park for suburbanites." (New York Observer) Gov. Pataki Weighs In - July 31, 2002 "Responding to a wave of public dismay over the first designs for rebuilding Lower Manhattan, Gov. George Pataki has sent word that it's time to go back to the drawing board. It is the right message," writes the Times in an editorial today. "Now he needs to follow through with action, to keep demonstrating that his core concern is coming up with the best possible plan, not simply keeping the issue on hold until after this fall's election." (New York Times) Botching the Rebuild - July 26, 2002 The first priority for rebuilding must be to focus on restoring lower Manhattan's status as the world's financial capital, the New York Post writes in an editorial today. "This may or may not require the restoration of all 11 million square feet of commercial space obliterated in the attack. But it does mean that those in charge of the process now must focus on ensuring that Lower Manhattan remains a dynamic place for companies to do business." (New York Post) Building Castles In the Clouds - July 25, 2002 Steven Brill examines Larry Silverstein's insurance case in Newsweek this week, and wonders whether Silverstein will really use the insurance money to rebuild. After the negative reactions to the six plans released last week, "some accommodation involving the insurance proceeds and the rebuilding plans will be necessary--an accommodation that could be hard fought because the various contracts seem to give Silverstein a claim on as much as $1 billion of the insurance proceeds if he refuses to compromise and walks away without rebuilding," Brill writes. (Newsweek) Time to Reach For the Stars - July 25, 2002 "At a time when what we need most is the far-reaching, pioneering vision that gave us great bridges and cloud-tufted skyscrapers, we are asked to look downward and not to the sky," Dennis Duggan writes in Newsday today. "Instead of mountains last week, we got molehills designed by timid souls with mousy imaginations, architects who must have been tuned in to easy-listening radio as they drew up their blueprints." (Newsday) Bring Back Our Towers - July 25, 2002 Nicole Gelinas argues that the towers should be rebuilt as they were before the attack. "The six wan proposals unveiled by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation are evidence that nobody has a better idea. But suggesting the obvious means a fight with a lockstep legion of opponents, armed with well-rehearsed arguments both practical and mystical -- and all wrong," she writes. (New York Post) Do Memorial First at Ground Zero - July 24, 2002 "Those in charge of planning shouldn't add to our pain by implying that what happened was some kind of unpleasantness to be avoided or disguised," Beverly Eckert writes in the Daily News today, urging planners to make the memorial the starting point of the planning process. "Consider the effect of a restored street grid, running Greenwich and Fulton Sts. through the site, and ask yourself whether a traffic island would be a proper resting place for those who died that day," she writes. (New York Daily News) The Bottom Line Rules at Ground Zero - July 23, 2002 "When Larry Silverstein, the developer who leased the World Trade Center from the Port Authority, said that the best thing to do after September 11th would be to rebuild the twin hundred-and-ten-story towers in the form of four fifty-story towers, nobody took him seriously," Paul Goldberger writes in this week's New Yorker. "Silverstein's plan seemed hopelessly banal," he continues, but, "never underestimate the power of banality†at least, not in the world of New York real estate." (New Yorker) Thrilling Show of People Power - July 22, 2002 The energy at Saturday's public hearing was democracy in action, Pete Hamill writes in the Daily News today, "All around the vast room, you heard citizens saying politely to others, 'What do you think?' And then listening -- actually listening -- to the replies. In this room, 'I' had given way to 'we.'" (New York Daily News) An Array of Opinions - July 21, 2002 The New York Times ran a collection of opinions and ideas from Saturday's public forum, where there were, said Renee Nalitt, a participant, "as many opinions as there were people." (New York Times) For Great Buildings, Get a Great Client - July 21, 2002 "As we look beyond Sept. 11 and the increasingly cacophonous debate over what should be built on the fraught terrain of Ground Zero," we should look to the Woolworth building, writes Barry Bergdoll in the New York Times today. It is a masterful building not only because Cass Gilbert was a great architect but because Frank Woolworth was a great client. "New York's finest skyscrapers have virtually all been the product of this synergy between an architect hitting his stride and a strong-willed client with a clear program and the ambition to make a mark," Bergdoll writes. (New York Times) Scapegoats By Design - July 19, 2002 John Podhoretz writes in the New York Post today that the six plans were released to "absorb the blows" from many people with different interests at stake. Nobody is happy with the plans, he writes, but he suspects "this is something the planners and the powers-that-be consciously anticipated. Since they knew their first designs wouldn't survive, they used their initial designs to establish a negotiating position. Since they have offered a somewhat extreme set of initial proposals, they can now comfortably negotiate backward." (New York Post) The Shopping Complex that Ate the World Trade Center Memorial - July 18, 2002 All of the six plans suggest that retail stores will dominate the World Trade Center site, writes Christopher Hawthorne in Slate.com today. The lease with mall developers Westfield America is forcing planners to build about 40 percent more retail than existed before the attacks. "A central question is circulation," he wryly notes. "Whether the 9/11 memorial will blend effortlessly into a gift shop that moves inexorably into a shopping promenade, so that before you realize it you've gone from weeping to deciding if you want fries with that." (Slate) Lease Limiting Possibilities Downtown - July 18, 2002 The 99-year lease with Silverstein Properties and retail company Westfield America, more than anything else, is controlling the future of the World Trade Center site, David Dunlap writes in the New York Times today. "The powerful Port Authority, which managed to clear the whole site in the 60's, is now legally bound to protect the right of two private companies to recover their lost commercial potential. This obligation has momentarily trumped other questions," he writes. (New York Times) The Downtown We Don't Want - July 17, 2002 The New York Times writes in an editorial today that it is a relief to know yesterday's six plans are only a starting point, because "these are dreary, leaden proposals that fall far short of what New York City--and the world--expect to see rise at ground zero." (New York Times) An Agency's Ideology Is Unsuited to Its Task - July 17, 2002 The plans developed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation illustrate how poorly suited the agency is to oversee rebuilding, writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times today. The plans show that the corporation is thinking small, he writes: "Don't come looking for ideas that reflect the historic magnitude of last year's catastrophe. Nor will you find any sign of recognition that ground zero has become a tragic symbol of the troubled relationship between the United States and the rest of the world. What you see, instead, are proposals for real estate development: six ways to slice the pie." (New York Times) Inspiring First Drafts Give Hope For Revival - July 17, 2002 Steve Cuozzo writes in the New York Post today that, despite their shortcomings, the six plans are an exciting glimpse at what the future holds for Ground Zero. "What a thrill, after months of anguish and mourning, to imagine the leveled 16 acres surging again with life and commerce!"(New York Post) National Design Competition - July 11, 2002 Architect Eli Attia started an online petition calling for a national design competition for the World Trade Center site. "Participation of the country's greatest and most talented architects, unshackled by the ordained restrictions, will ensure that the best design that America can create will prevail for all generations to come. Such a competition should be judged by the American people, after screening the competition entries for feasibility," he writes. As of today, 2,894 people have signed.(Petition Online) Memorial Should Be Measured By Greatness, Not Size - July 8, 2002 "An assumption has taken root over the past ten months that this memorial, whatever it ends up being, has to be big: A big catastrophe demands a big monument. This isn't so. A big catastrophe has to have a great monument. Greatness is not largeness," writes Michael Tomasky in New York Magazine. He goes on to defend Mayor Michael Bloomberg's suggestion that a memorial should not fill the entire 16-acre site. "Bloomberg is right on this one, and I urge him to stand his ground," Tomasky writes. (New York Magazine) Promise Pataki Can't Keep - July 3, 2002 Gov. George Pataki appears to be taking back his statement that there should never be commercial buildings on the land where the World Trade Center towers stood, Dennis Duggan writes in a Newsday column today. "It now looks as though Pataki was talking off-message, as the pols say," writes Duggan. "By yesterday, his own people were backtracking. No, Pataki wasn't laying down the law for development of the site. He was only offering an opinion." (Newsday) Pataki's Surprising Limit on Ground Zero Design - July 2, 2002 "When Gov. George E. Pataki said on Saturday that nothing would be built where the twin towers once stood, he all but took the pencils out of the hands of the urban planners hired to consider options for the site of the World Trade Center," writes Edward Wyatt in a New York Times news analysis today. Wyatt adds that Pataki's announcement seems to prove that the rebuilding process is just as firmly under the governor's control as critics charge. (New York Times) In Downtown, Let Housing Bloom - July 2, 2002 Robert R. Douglas advocates for new housing to be developed in the area immediately south of the World Trade Center site, running along West St. and bounded on the north by Liberty St. and on the south by Battery Place. In his New York Daily News column today, Douglas calls the idea "an opportunity to transform a largely underdeveloped, underused section of lower Manhattan into an exciting and beautiful 21st century residential neighborhood." (New York Daily News) Waiting for Ground Zero Proposals - July 1, 2002 "The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has promised that by mid-July, the public will see a half-dozen options for reclaiming ground zero. The waiting would be easier if we were totally confident that everyone else is waiting, too," writes the New York Times in an editorial today. The editorial goes on to say that rebuilding officials must assure New Yorkers that a public planning process will take place, and that an inside group won't be allowed to make decisions in secret. (New York Times) Don't Look to Oklahoma for Memorial Advice - June 26, 2002 In Oklahoma, the memorial planning process was so tipped towards the desires of victims' families that it "turned a memorial that should address issues of national disunity into a site for the bereaved," says Philip Weiss in the New York Observer today. He continues to say that New York City should not look to the Oklahoma Memorial, a field of 168 chairs, as an example. "In 100 years, those chairs will seem meaningless," he says. (New York Observer) Build a World University Downtown - June 23, 2002 In the Daily News today, David Caputo suggests that planners for downtown should consider bringing an international center of education to the area. "What I am advocating for lower Manhattan, however, is not just another school, but a World University that would place New York among the major educational innovators in the 21st century and put the rebuilding effort at the forefront of economic and social change," he writes. (Daily News) A History Museum for Ground Zero - June 17, 2002 Gersh Kuntzman supports a proposal for a history museum at Ground Zero in a New York Post column today. "Now, here's an idea that's about time," he writes. "A group of esteemed New York scholars has proposed that a world-class history museum take its rightful place at the site of the city's most significant historical event: Ground Zero." (New York Post) Ground Zero Diagnosis - June 3, 2002 "As plans for the reconstruction go forward, city and state officials will have an opportunity to ensure that the risk of cancer and other health problems associated with the pollution that comes from heavy construction vehicles is kept to a minimum," writes Bob Herbert in the New York Times today. Herbert details the threats that diesel particles from construction vehicles pose to the long-term health of workers, residents and visitors in Lower Manhattan, and describes the steps that should be made to make reconstruction more environmentally sound. (New York Times) Marginal Role for Architecture at Ground Zero - May 23, 2002 "The selection of the New York architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle to design a master plan for ground zero and the financial district confirms once again that architecture will play no more than a marginal role in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan," writes Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times today. Muschamp goes on to argue that mediocrity has been the primary accomplishment of the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Muschamp looks to the European cities as an example, where "architecture, planning and urban design are integrated with one another in a systematic approach. They are not handed off to consortiums of entrepreneurs and mid-level manager." (New York Times) Tradition Holds Sway So Far at Ground Zero - May 10, 2002 Reporter Adam Nagourney writes in a news analysis in the Times that, despite all the talk of a new downtown among everyone involved in the rebuilding process, convservatism has been the primary mode of operation. "For all this language of transformation and opportunity," writes Nagourney, "the contours of a reconfigured downtown that are emerging, as described in conversations with political and civic leaders over the past two weeks, are notable more for their caution and adherence to tradition than for any attempt at innovation or experiment." While some may see this relative conservatism as a missed opportunity, others are characterizing it as a moment of unprecedented unity among New Yorkers. (New York Times) Let's Rebuild Chinatown, Too - May 4, 2002 "Government-led efforts to rebuild the city's financial district would be shortsighted if they ignored the needs of surrounding communities like Chinatown," writes Jacqueline Huey, President of Asian Americans for Equality in a letter to the New York Times. Huey argues that the city needs to make sure it takes note of the needs of devastated communities, including Chinatown, as it rebuilds after September 11. (New York Times) Foundations for Lower Manhattan - April 29, 2002 The New York Times writes, "Transportation is the foundation of the revival of Lower Manhattan - the underpinning of any real renewal." The editorial then goes on to summarize the various transportation projects that need to be considered, including a new PATH terminal, expansion of the South Ferry terminal, and suppressing West Street underground. Getting the funds from the federal government is key to the success of these transportation ideas, and the Times closes by writing, "The construction crews have virtually cleared ground zero, and Mr. Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have begun to tackle their task. Congress needs to pitch in to make it work." (New York Times) A Planning Framework to Rebuild Downtown New York - Civic Alliance April 26, 2002 The Civic Alliance presents its summary of recommendations for what to do with the World Trade Center site. R.DOT Interim White Paper February 19, 2002 Rebuild Downtown Our Town, or R.DOT, presents their first report of recommendations on what should be built downtown. The coalition is made up of Lower Manhattan residents, businesses, professionals, academics, and others, and their report focuses on mixed-use development, strong transportation links, and sustainable development. Listening To The City - A Preliminary Report February 7, 2002 The Civic Alliance presents a preliminary report from their first "citywide conversation" about rebuilding Lower Manhattan, a 700-person brainstorming event called "Listening To The City." New York New Visions - Preliminary Report (in PDF format) February 2002 New York New Visions, a coalition of 20 architecture, planning, and design organizations, presents their preliminary recommendations for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. Their report focuses on an open memorial process, flexible mixed-use development, an inclusive planning process and a more connected downtown area. Downtown, a Necropolis Is Flourishing by John Tierney New York Times - January 25, 2002 "Leave the funerary monuments to the Lycians," writes John Tierney in this edition of his Big City column. Tierney argues against making the entire site of the World Trade Center a memorial and for a memorial based on heroism, not defeat. Eight Steps Toward Rebuilding Downtown Gotham Gazette - December 31, 2001 Carl Weisbrod, the president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, answers Dick Netzer's argument in Gotham Gazette that we should rebuild "Fast, Not Fancy - And in Midtown, Not Downtown." Such a suggestion, Weisbrod writes, is "an insult to the thousands of people who are working around the clock to stabilize the area." Downtown must be rebuilt, he says, and he offers eight ways to do it right. Editorial New York Times - December 26, 2001 Last week, workers in New York City finally extinguished the fires that have been smoldering for almost 100 days at Ground Zero. This should ignite a new resolve among political, business and civic leaders to take the first small but critical steps on the road to restoring Lower Manhattan. Most New Yorkers imagine restoration in grand terms - as a big, architecturally innovative complex of commercial, residential, cultural and commemorative structures created by some of world's most talented people. In reality, these permanent structures are years away, and while a larger vision must always be kept in mind and indeed animate the entire project, the task now is to focus on downtown's urgent short-term needs. The Future Of Up By Witold Rybczynski New York Times - December 9, 2001 While much has been written about skyscrapers recently, as the debate about how to rebuild Lower Manhattan intensifies, it is critical to step back and consider how skyscrapers contribute to a vital city. It is true that since the terrorist attacks, the same exciting Manhattan skyline suddenly strikes many as a liability. Some are even nervous about living or working in tall buildings, although such reactions, similar to those that follow great earthquakes, will most likely be short-lived. Yet there is little doubt that our self- confidence has been shaken. The proud towers of the city are now described as emblems not of technological prowess but merely of hubris. Reaching into the sky is rash, we are told, tempting fate or, at least, tempting malevolence. Better to hunker down, keep a low profile. But it would be a shame if, in the rush to glean some meaning from the awful events of Sept. 11, we were to give up on the skyscraper. What To Build New York Times - November 11, 2001 Moderated by TERENCE RILEY Two architects, an urban planner, a structural engineer and a landscape designer consider the future of ground zero. Two Views on How to Rebuild Gotham Gazette - November 26, 2001 1. Make it fast, not fancy, Dick Netzer says, and in midtown, not downtown. 2. We must pause and reflect, says Nancy Biberman, before trying to build anything on the hallowed ground. More Resources Coalitions for Rebuilding Civic Alliance The Regional Plan Association has convened a Civic Alliance of more than 75 business, government, community and civic groups in New York and New Jersey, to ensure that the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan meets the highest standards of urban design, addresses regional infrastructure issues and represents the collective wisdom and vision of a cross-section of the city and region's civic, community, environmental and business leaders. New York New Visions New York New Visions is a coalition of 20 architecture, planning, and design organizations that came together immediately following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. This group, representing over 30,000 individuals, has pooled the collective resources and technical expertise of over 350 professionals and civic group leaders in a pro-bono effort to address the issues surrounding the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. R.DOT: Rebuild Our Town Downtown The Rebuild Downtown Our Town Coalition, (R.Dot) is comprised of Lower Manhattan residents, businesses, community and business associations, artists, colleges, professionals, designers, public officials and appointees. The coalition meets regularly to develop an imaginative, sustainable design for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan that creates the possibility of the area becoming a diverse, inclusive 24-hour residential and business community. Integral to this goal is the attraction of the intellectual, entrepreneurial, creative, and technological capabilities that empowers New York City's economy and the richness of its multi-cultural life. The coalition also supports the design of a fitting memorial for the September 11 tragedy. The New York City Infrastructure Task Force Formed to help build consensus on any decisions regarding reconstruction, amongst "private and public sector leaders, existing and newly formed governmental entities as well as concerned civic and community groups." The task force hopes to offer pro-bono, the talents of leading design professionals to aid the actual decision makers in identifying all the important questions raised by this issue. New York City Partnership An organization with a focus on business, New York City Partnership is involved in assisting businesses as they attempt to get back on their feet after September 11.

News Stories

Rebuilding at Ground Zero - Mar 3, 2003
The competition to design the World Trade Center site is over. The winner is Daniel Libeskind. But how much of his powerful scheme will be built? Libeskind's plan calls for a 7acre area, 30 ft. deep, to be preserved as testimony to the attack and the resilience of New York City and America - in effect, a Wailing Wall for the 21st century, with an emotional power that grows from calamity but tells of endurance. (Time)

Daniel Libeskind Takes Home the Prize - Mar 3, 2003
Who would have thought a year ago that a world-class radical architect would be chosen to design the WTC site? The selection of someone of Libeskind's caliber for this historic project is a turning point for architecture and for the city, and it sends a clear signal that the public has an appetite for innovative design. It was public passion that forced the design competition from which Libeskind has emerged victorious. (Newsweek)

Political Considerations Lead To Current Vision For Ground Zero - Mar 3, 2003
The creation of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation set off what could have been any government operation -- a plodding, obtuse process run by bureaucrats with little public participation. Instead, it evolved into a grand public discussion about architecture, public space and the nature of memory. (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)

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)

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)

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)

Three Designs for Ground Zero Emerge as Favorites - Jan 17, 2003
Three vastly different designs for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, one emphasizing tall towers, another an excavated memorial site and a third a large public garden, appear to be receiving the greatest support in public discussions about the future of the site and of Lower Manhattan. However, only about one-third of people responding in comments submitted to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's website noted a preference for one plan over the others. (New York Times)

World Trade Center Designs Questioned - Jan 3, 2003
Ideas for redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, presented last December amid a blaze of publicity, are being questioned by specialists. Architects were told to be bold and take risks. But for all their inventiveness and imagination, real-estate experts and those involved in the complicated planning process say that none of these super-tall towers will probably be built. (BBC News)

Experts Say Enormous Office Towers Ignore Downtown's Realities - Dec 20, 2002
The new World Trade Center designs may be eye-catching and inventive - but no one is likely to build the super-tall towers many of them propose, developers, architects and real-estate experts said yesterday. Many of the designs call for building enormous office towers that would dwarf the old World Trade Center buildings and be the tallest in the world. But critics said proposals like British architect Norman Foster's 1,764-foot "kissing" towers - taller than the original Twin Towers - ignore the realities of the real estate market. (New York Post)

Plans for Ground Zero Unveiled - Dec 19, 2002
Seven teams of architects from around the world unveiled new designs for the World Trade Center site yesterday, giving a remarkable civic tutorial on architecture and contemporary urban design aimed at mending the hole left in Lower Manhattan by the Sept. 11 attack. The designs, the subject of secrecy and speculation since the teams began work 12 weeks ago, include a broad array of elements: quiet memorial gardens and scenic plazas in the sky, soaring towers of bare scaffolding and sprawling canopies of glass. Four include what would be the tallest building in the world, and all set aside an area for a memorial to the victims of 9/11. (New York Times)

Mayor's Proposal Envisions Lower Manhattan as an Urban Hamlet - Dec 13, 2002
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday offered his vision of the future of Lower Manhattan: a collection of neighborhoods stitched together by large parks and broad pedestrian walkways, with a direct mass transit link to Kennedy Airport via a new tunnel under the East River. Under Mr. Bloomberg's plan, Lower Manhattan would essentially be transformed from an ailing financial center with pockets of residential developments into an urban hamlet of housing, schools, libraries and movie theaters, as well as other businesses, some of which would benefit from a generous new federal tax package. (New York Times)

Port Authority Won't Be Part of Ground Zero Design Display - Nov 23, 2002
A lower Manhattan planner asked the Port Authority yesterday to unveil its master plan alongside other new designs for Ground Zero next month - but the bistate agency turned him down. Lower Manhattan Development Corp. board member Roland Betts, head of the agency's site-planning subcommittee, told the Gotham Gazette in an online interview that he has invited the Port Authority to present the work at the Winter Garden next month, when as many as nine plans for the World Trade Center site will be unveiled. Port Authority spokesman Michael Petralia insisted the agency is working jointly with the corporation on the plan and that it simply isn't done yet. (New York Daily News)

Rebuilding Official Praises Designs For World Trade Center Site - Nov 22, 2002
Seven architecture teams commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to design plans for Ground Zero have created work that is "astoundingly innovative, creative and exciting," according to Roland W. Betts, a Lower Manhattan Development Corporation director. Memorials on the tops of buildings and below ground, a formal 19th-century-style garden and the tallest building in the world are among the elements included in several new sets of plans being drawn up for the World Trade Center site, according to rebuilding officials who have seen them. (New York Times)

Port Authority Releasing Their Own Master Plan For Ground Zero - Nov 22, 2002
The Port Authority will release its own master plan for the World Trade Center site by February, detailing the memorialÕs size and location and transportation improvements, the agencyÕs executive director said Thursday. The master plan, being developed by architects hired by the Port Authority, will include mass transit, vehicular and pedestrian access and the minimum and maximum square footage of the commercial space. (Newsday)

Design Announced For 7 World Trade Center - Nov 21, 2002
Developer Larry Silverstein released his designs for a new 7 World Trade Center on Wednesday. The 750-foot glass and steel office tower will have reinforced concrete walls, increased amounts of structural steel, double the required fireproofing materials and wider staircases than required by code. Located across Vesey Street from the trade center site, the $700-million tower will be the first building to rise again at Ground Zero. (Newsday)

Planners Commit To Doubling Retail Space At Ground Zero - Nov 21, 2002
The chairman of the company that holds the rights to build retail stores at the World Trade Center site said yesterday that officials assured him that his company, which has been quiet in public discussions about the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, will now have a more active role in planning the effort. Frank Lowy, chairman of the Westfield Group, an Australian operator of shopping malls, said that in a meeting yesterday, senior officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation also committed to trying to build more than twice the amount of retail space that existed on Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

Larry Silverstein To Announce Plans for 7 World Trade Center - Nov 20, 2002
Marking an important step in the rebuilding of ground zero, developer Larry Silverstein is set to release plans on Wednesday for a new 7 World Trade Center, just north of where the twin towers stood. The 52-story lower Manhattan office tower will incorporate "cutting-edge safety and environmental features," Silverstein's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Tuesday. The new building will be narrower than its 47-story predecessor so that Greenwich Street, formerly cut off by 7 World Trade Center, can be restored. (Newsday)

Officials Debate How To Unveil New Ground Zero Plans - Nov 18, 2002
Ground Zero planners are grappling with how best to show the public the new round of World Trade Center designs set to be unveiled next month. The designs, replete with memorial and office spaces, will be completed before the middle of December. The possibilities for exhibiting the new designs include a live broadcast at the glass atrium Winter Garden, which overlooks the site. Each design team would be given about 20 minutes of air time to detail its work. A tape of the broadcast then could be distributed to TV outlets. (New York Daily News)

Downtown Questions Olympic Plan - Nov 14, 2002
Two of the leading representatives of Lower Manhattan say they are concerned that the city's push to capture the Olympics in 2012 may divert attention from Downtown transportation and rebuilding projects. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Madelyn Wils, chairperson of Community Board 1 and a board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., both said they saw potential problems with the Olympic bid, during separate telephone interviews. (Downtown Express)

Designs Unveiled for Transit Hub at Ground Zero - Nov 13, 2002
Demonstrating the speed with which planning at the World Trade Center site is taking place, Port Authority officials showed early designs for a permanent transportation hub at the site today, incorporating many elements of the temporary PATH station that is already being built. The preliminary designs include a soaring glass atrium that would allow subway and rail passengers to see skyscrapers towering overhead from several floors below ground level, enabling them to orient themselves to where they are in the downtown landscape almost as soon as they step off the trains. (New York Times)

Tall Tower Near Ground Zero Is Proposed - Nov 12, 2002
A developer who has built a dozen residential towers in the relatively safe environs of the East Side now wants to plunge into uncertain waters downtown, with a new 90-story skyscraper that would be the second-tallest building in New York City Ñ and only a block from Ground Zero. Trevor Davis has designs for a building that would be 1,050 feet tall, 4 feet taller than the Chrysler Building, but 200 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, on a block at Broadway and Fulton Street. (New York Times)

Downtown Planners May Give FDR Drive a New Design - Nov 11, 2002
Planners overseeing lower Manhattan's comeback from the terror attacks are considering new designs for a portion of the FDR Drive south of the Brooklyn Bridge, officials said. The east waterfront access design has become a critical concern of planners -- and it is expected to be included when Mayor Bloomberg unveils his vision for lower Manhattan next month. (New York Daily News)

New WTC Designs To Be Directly Shown to Public - Nov 8, 2002
The latest designs by Ground Zero architects will be brought directly to the public next month in two exhibits set up by curators from the Museum of Modern Art, officials said yesterday. Models and pictures of the designs will be displayed at the World Financial Center in mid-December, probably at the Winter Garden. At the same time, MoMA will display some of the same materials in its temporary space in Queens, said Terrence Riley, the chief curator for architecture and design. (New York Post)

City Says Olympic Plans Won't Hurt WTC Rebuilding Efforts - Nov 4, 2002
The city's $5-billion commitment to the 2012 Olympic Games will not overshadow its commitment to the World Trade Center site, promised government and labor leaders, who applauded the economic impact of the summer games. Rather than taking resources from the redevelopment of lower Manhattan, the bid will help the city rebuild long after the "extraordinary spirit" generated by the Sept. 11 attacks has faded, said Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, who leads the downtown rebuilding effort and the Olympic bid. (Newsday)

Vocal Groups Continue to Call for Rebuilt Towers - Nov 2, 2002
Politicians and planners have repeatedly dismissed the idea of rebuilding the World Trade Center towers, saying it is not economically feasible because few people want to work 100 stories above ground, especially at ground zero. But a few vocal groups of tower supporters insist that a large segment of the public is on their side. These small groups, which say they have gathered thousands of names on petitions in support of their goal, have continued to put up billboards, manage Web sites, speak and pass out leaflets at public hearings, often generating enthusiastic responses (New York Times)

WTC Site Designers Including Much Office Space - Nov 1, 2002
Several Ground Zero architects are thinking bigger may be better - offering surprising designs that increase the office space on the site well beyond guidelines intended to trim the trade center's square footage, a development official said yesterday. (New York Post)

City Council Issues Report on Downtown Greenmarket - Oct 31, 2002
Among the myriad ideas for how best to develop the former site of the World Trade Center and revitalize the downtown economy, add marketplace. A study issued last week examines the feasibility of several types of markets, ultimately suggesting a 42,000 square foot market hall be built as part of the WTC redevelopment project. (Downtown Express)

Port Authority, City May Clash Over Rebuilding Office Space - Oct 28, 2002
A new set of guidelines for Ground Zero, meant to reduce square footage on the site, has set the battle lines for a potentially bitter real-estate fight between the Port Authority and the city. With pressure growing to peel office space from the trade center, the authority has insisted that any reduction below 10 million square feet be made up by allowing the agency to build elsewhere in lower Manhattan. But city officials are adamantly opposed to letting the bistate agency extend its reach beyond the 16 acres of Ground Zero. (New York Post)

Planners Urge Decisions on Downtown - Oct 24, 2002
Last night, a half-dozen chairmen and chairwomen of the New York City Planning Commission, past and present, whose experience goes back to the days before the World Trade Center was built, said that the planning process in Lower Manhattan must begin showing results soon if it is to counter the very real threat that downtown could lose the financial-service industry, its economic backbone. (New York Times)

Transit Hub Plans May Raze Broadway Buildings - Oct 17, 2002
A plan to build a new Fulton Transit Center to better connect downtown subway lines may include razing some buildings on Broadway. Merchants on a commercial stretch of Broadway near ground zero expressed their dismay last week at a transit proposal to raze their block to make room for a renovated subway complex at the Broadway/Nassau St./Fulton St. station. (Downtown Express)

Battery Park City "Green" Building May be a Sign of Downtown's Future - Oct 15, 2002
20 River Terrace, begun early last year just a few blocks from the World Trade Center, was to be the world's most environmentally correct residential high-rise, its developers said ? an air-purified, solar-paneled monument to the marriage of mother earth and technological gee-whiz. Now as construction resumes after a 10-month break during the cleanup of ground zero, the 27-story tower has become even more than the sum of its ambitions, builders and environmentalists say. (New York Times)

Brooklyn Battery Decks Could Be Used for Apartments - Oct 15, 2002
Downtown planners may build a deck over the entrance ramp to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, reclaiming the space for apartment buildings. Decking over the tunnel entrance and exit ramps - and replacing the Battery parking garage - would make usable some three square blocks that could eventually hold more than 1,000 apartments, said sources familiar with the idea. (New York Post)

Architects Get WTC Site Plans - Oct 12, 2002
Six teams of architects set off Friday on an eight-week course to plan the future layout of the World Trade Center site, as officials released a new set of program requirements, including a range of office space and a large transit station at Fulton and Greenwich Streets. The teams received a day-long briefing Friday from officials and a tour of Ground Zero. (Newsday)

LMDC: Fewer Offices, More Options in Planning for Ground Zero - Oct 10, 2002
Officials overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan agreed yesterday to give designers more flexibility in planning the future of the World Trade Center site, reducing by 40 percent the amount of the commercial space that must be included in plans for it. The new instructions are to be given tomorrow to six new teams of architects, artists and designers selected last month to work on innovative plans to rejuvenate the symbolic heart of the financial district. (New York Times)

LMDC: Fewer Offices at Site - Oct 9, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. expects "a substantial reduction" in office space required for the World Trade Center site to allow for less density and more freedom in redesigning the site, its president said yesterday. (Newsday)

Silverstein: Still Wants Entire WTC Office Space Rebuilt - Oct 9, 2002
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein insisted yesterday that there is "an enormous need" to rebuild every inch of office and retail space destroyed by the terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Architects Debate Whether Or Not To Rebuild At Forum - Sep 30, 2002
At the first Columbia University Seminar on Art and Society at the New-York Historical Society, Daniel Libeskind, the architect who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, and Sherwin B. Nuland, the author of "How We Die," argued about one question concerning the rebuilding at the World Trade Center site: Should there be something rather than nothing? Or nothing rather than something? (New York Times)

Design Teams Are Selected for New Plans for 9/11 Site - Sep 27, 2002
Six teams of architects, artists and designers, including individuals and firms that have created some of the most renowned buildings and public works of the last quarter-century, were chosen yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to create new designs for the World Trade Center site. (New York Times)

Details on the Finalists for Trade Center Site - Sep 27, 2002
A list of the six teams selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, with excerpts from their application. (Newsday)

Office Space Should Be Rebuilt Off The Footprints, Silverstein Says - Sep 24, 2002
Larry Silverstein, the real-estate developer who holds the lease to develop on the World Trade Center site, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece yesterday that all the commercial space destroyed in the September 11 attacks must be rebuilt over the next decade for the "good of the city and the region." "If we do not replace the lost space," wrote Silverstein, "lower Manhattan never will regain the vibrancy it had as the world's financial center." (Wall Street Journal)

Ideas To Be Explored For Housing and Retail Revitalization Downtown - Sep 24, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the city Department of Planning are teaming up to study ways to build more housing in lower Manhattan and make Fulton St. a prime retail and entertainment center, officials said yesterday. The housing study will examine the market south of Houston St. Officials will emphasize the need to build more housing along the Fulton St. and John St. corridors, as well as south of Liberty St. The Fulton St. study will look at the shops, arts and entertainment offerings currently along the strip and offer ways to lure more tenants to the street, which will be extended through the disaster site. (Newsday)

Housing Could Boom Downtown, Report Says - Sep 24, 2002
Lower Manhattan could gain up to 8,000 new apartment units over the next 10 years, substantially increasing the size of its residential neighborhoods, according to a new development study by the independent Citizens Housing and Planning Council. Focusing on the area below Chambers Street, the report says 4,000 to 8,000 new apartments could be added through conversion of older office buildings and new construction - a substantial increase over the 12,500 units there now. (New York Post)

Plans for Transit Hub - Sep 18, 2002
Preliminary computer images of a plan for a dramatic transit hub at Ground Zero show a wavy atrium roof and views looking out onto a future trade-center memorial and the Winter Garden. (New York Post)

Plans to Raze Fulton St. Block for Transit Hub - Sep 16, 2002
Transit officials want to demolish a block of buildings on lower Broadway and replace them with a glass-enclosed, atrium-style terminal, as part of the project to reconfigure the Fulton Street subway station. Planners for the Metropolitan Transit Authority want to use the power of eminent domain to condemn and demolish all five buildings on the east side of Broadway between Fulton and John streets, officials said. (New York Post)

Rebuild on a Human Scale, Says Historian - Sep 12, 2002
A new dynamic is taking hold in lower Manhattan. Good-government groups that have long called for the diversification of the downtown economy, as well as the development of affordable housing and a more diverse retail environment for the people who live there, find that their voices are being heard?and heeded. (New York Observer)

What To Do With Ground Zero - Sep 2, 2002
One year after the terrorist attacks, the place where the Twin Towers once loomed looks like any big-city construction site. But exactly what will be built there is still anyone’s guess. One of the many remarkable stories of the last year is how public opinion, galvanized by the tragedy, has derailed the business-as-usual development plans that called for replacing the World Trade Center’s 11 million square feet of office space. (Newsweek)

Thinking Big in New York, Seeking a Grand Vision of Public Works - Sep 1, 2002
Hovering above the initial debate over the World Trade Center site is a more sweeping and historically significant question: Can New York City, which for more than a century led the world in the construction of major public works only to repudiate the practice some 30 years ago, somehow learn to build on a grand scale again? (New York Times)

Worldwide Competition Launched to Redesign Downtown - Aug 15, 2002
The agency overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan announced yesterday that it would conduct "a worldwide design competition" to hire as many as five licensed architecture or planning firms to offer new ideas for the site of the World Trade Center. To incorporate the new ideas as well as expected changes in how much office, retail, residential and cultural space will be included on the site, the officials extended the schedule for the process, allowing three new designs to be completed by the end of the year and a final design selected in the first half of 2003. (New York Times)

Seeking Firms to Pitch New WTC ideas - Aug 14, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is launching a worldwide search for five more firms to produce new designs for rebuilding at Ground Zero, sources said last night. Each of the new firms picked will be given specific criteria to meet, but many of the rigid constraints put on the first six designs will be gone. (New York Daily News)

Groups Support Plan to Cut Office Space at Site - Aug 12, 2002
Sept. 11 survivors' groups and Lower Manhattan residents cheered reports yesterday that the amount of office space slated to be built at Ground Zero could be cut by as much as a third. (Newsday)

$4.5B to Be Used for a Ground Zero Rail Hub - Aug 12, 2002
Billions of dollars in federal money will be used to build a new transit hub near Ground Zero, linking the PATH with subway lines in lower Manhattan, Mayor Bloomberg is set to announce today. The federal government has agreed to give the city $4.5 billion for the rail center. (New York Daily News)

Plans for WTC Site in Disarray - Aug 11, 2002
As the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedy approaches, plans for the World Trade Center site are in disarray, tainted by criticism that they're boring and small-minded. The negative feedback, especially from the loved ones of survivors, has the attention of state and city officials, who say they will pursue more creative alternatives to plans put together by the prestigious architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle. (Associated Press)

Proposals Could Expand Memorial Site - Aug 11, 2002
Officials are discussing options that would reduce by nearly one-third the amount of office space that would have to be built at ground zero. Among the possibilities being considered is the purchase of the severely damaged Deutsche Bank building by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (New York Times)

Civic Coalition Calls for New WTC plans - Aug 8, 2002
The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, the coalition of civic groups that held a citywide forum at which WTC rebuilding proposals were widely criticized called yesterday for the designs to be scrapped and for planners to start from scratch. (New York Daily News)

More Designers Might Be Invited to Submit Ideas on Ground Zero - Jul 30, 2002
Responding to criticism of the plans to rebuild Lower Manhattan, officials said yesterday that they wanted to open up the design effort to more architects, including smaller design firms and foreign teams.Many such groups were excluded from consideration for the first design contract because of their relative lack of experience working on big projects in New York. (New York Times)

At Trade Center Site, a Wealth of Ideas - Jul 28, 2002
A tangle of interests is at work in lower Manhattan, seeking to influence the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and, more broadly, the structure and methods of the downtown economy. The political, aesthetic and commercial interests that are involved in the effort bring with them such a dizzying array of positions and agendas that it is often quite difficult to keep track of who wants what. (New York Times)

Pataki Suggests Broadening Scope of Lower Manhattan - Jul 27, 2002
Answering criticism that proposals for redeveloping the World Trade Center site are small-minded and unimaginative, Gov. George Pataki said Friday that plans should be expanded beyond ground zero. Pataki urged government planners "to look beyond just the 16 acres" of the trade center complex. (Associated Press)

WTC Plans Flexible - Jul 25, 2002
The World Trade Center site could be redeveloped with or without leaseholder Larry Silverstein, while the Dec. 1 deadline for choosing a site plan could be delayed by three months, Charles Gargano, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board member said Wednesday. Participating in an Internet chat held by Gotham Gazette.com, Lower Manhattan Development Corp. president Lou Tomson said he too would like a one-to-three-month extension. (Newsday)

PA is Talking Flexibility on WTC Land Use - Jul 24, 2002
A top Port Authority official conceded yesterday that the agency may not be able to rebuild all 11 million square feet of office space lost in the World Trade Center attacks. And if that means the PA will get less than the $124 million in rents it collects annually at the Trade Center site, then so be it, PA Chairman Jack Sinagra said. (New York Daily News)

Even Critics Say Some Designs for Downtown Aren't So Bad - Jul 23, 2002
Even as the six initial designs for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site have come under fire in the past week as unimaginative, certain design elements appear to have captured the imagination of a diverse public audience. The idea of a memorial promenade stretching to Battery Park, providing impressive views throughout its length of those other American landmarks, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, was widely admired. (New York Times)

WTC Designer Says Concerns Deserve Attention - Jul 23, 2002
A top architect hired to reimagine the World Trade Center site said yesterday the much-criticized rebuilding plans could be overhauled as victims' families vowed to work separately on alternative ideas. John Beyer, whose firm Beyer Blinder Belle prepared the initial plans under a tight deadline, said the reaction to the six designs at a Saturday forum deserves great attention. (New York Daily News)

Fresh Visions of Ground Zero Could Delay Lower Manhattan's Recovery - Jul 22, 2002
Officials charged with overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan said this weekend that the public's call for a slower planning process and less commercial space on the World Trade Center site could delay plans for an expanded transportation center connecting the subway and commuter rail lines downtown. (New York Times)

Less of a Jersey Tilt on Plans for WTC - Jul 22, 2002
Since rebuilding talks began, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, stocked with New York state and city appointees -- has been responsive to the demands of the Port Authority, an agency controlled equally by the Empire and Garden states. Many officials on this side of the Hudson River have feared that New Jersey's financial interests were playing too large a role in what rises in lower Manhattan. It looks like the power balance has now tipped firmly in New York's favor. (New York Daily News)

3,000 To Attend Today's Meeting on WTC Plans - Jul 22, 2002
Another town hall meeting will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center today for people to express their opinions on rebuilding lower Manhattan in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The meeting, which is expected to draw 3,000 people, comes on the heels of a similar gathering on Saturday at the Javits Center during which officials -- stung by criticism about the initial six proposals for redeveloping the World Trade Center -- said they might extend the timeline for producing a final plan. (Newsday)

Officials Rethink Building Proposal for Ground Zero - Jul 21, 2002
Officials charged with rebuilding Lower Manhattan in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center said yesterday that they would consider new options for the site, including scaling back the amount of commercial space.The changes, the officials said, were in response to a broad array of criticism of the six initial designs for rebuilding the trade center site, including unfavorable appraisals at a town hall meeting in Manhattan yesterday. (New York Times)

Forum on WTC Designs: Try Again - Jul 21, 2002
If there was an overarching message sent by an estimated 5,000 people attending the ambitious town hall meeting yesterday on the future of the World Trade Center site, it was this: Get back to the drawing board. (Newsday)

A Forum on Rebuilding Lower Manhattan - Jul 20, 2002
When more than 5,000 people gather today at the Javits Convention Center to talk about the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, plenty of people, Gov. George E. Pataki among them, are likely to be listening closely. Since Tuesday, when the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released six initial proposals for the redesign of the World Trade Center site, a wave of negative commentary has flowed from architects, urban designers, politicians and journalists. (New York Times)

Mayor: More Housing at WTC Site - Jul 20, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said he'd like to see more housing -- and less office space -- at Ground Zero, after six designs for site called for massive commercial buildings. (New York Post)

WTC Public Hearing Set Tomorrow - Jul 19, 2002
More than 5,000 people, including at least 300 relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, will converge on the Javits Center tomorrow to comment on lower Manhattan redevelopment proposals at a high-tech town hall meeting. "Listening to the City," an all-day event, will feature 10- to 12-person roundtable groups that will use wireless technology to vote on what they'd like to see in a memorial and rebuilding at Ground Zero. (New York Daily News)

City Split on Redeveloping 'Sacred Ground' - Jul 18, 2002
New Yorkers are evenly divided over whether it is appropriate to build on the "footprints" of the Twin Towers--an area that some have called sacred ground, according to a poll released yesterday. (New York Post)

Critics See Plans as Dull and Tinged With Greed - Jul 18, 2002
Dreary, dense, listless and just plain greedy. Those are some of the comments being used to bludgeon the six redevelopment proposals for the World Trade Center site. Yet the criticism didn't seem to bother the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. at a meeting yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg Has Own Ideas - Jul 18, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg's strong comments about the Ground Zero plans mark one of the few times he has used the bully pulpit to drive the agenda on a major issue. Beginning Saturday and continuing yesterday, Bloomberg has made it clear he wasn't thrilled by any of the six designs, and that he had his own ideas (New York Post)

Memorial Promenade is Favorite Among Post Readers - Jul 18, 2002
New York Post readers overwhelmingly voted for the Memorial Promenade as their favorite among the six proposals for Ground Zero. The plan includes a pair of buildings with tall spires, evoking the Twin Towers. (New York Post)

Six Plans for Ground Zero, All Seen as a Starting Point - Jul 17, 2002
On the day that six proposals for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site were unveiled, the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said yesterday that the public could consider a seventh possibility, a new design without some of the requirements for office and retail space that shaped the initial proposals. (New York Times)

Plans for WTC Site Include Memorial, Offices, Hotel and Retail Space - Jul 17, 2002
The plans show the skyline of lower Manhattan restored, spires higher than the Twin Towers, parks and memorials -- and many office buildings of varying sizes and shapes. They envision transportation improvements and include new housing, but they ignore surrounding neighborhoods. (Newsday)

Commercial Space Mix Could Affect Revenues and Race for Governor - Jul 17, 2002
John C. Whitehead, chairman of the group overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, brought a long-simmering backroom debate into the open yesterday when he said the group might scrap the six plans for the World Trade Center site, and with them, the Port Authority's demand for dense commercial development. (New York Times)

Giuliani: Don't Build on the Footprints - Jul 17, 2002
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday gave a thumbs-down to those Ground Zero plans that call for building on the Twin Towers' footprints, saying the swaths of land are a "burial ground" that should be kept intact. (New York Post)

Preliminary Trade Center Plans Scheduled To Be Released Today - Jul 16, 2002
In what will be the beginning of a process of debate and refinement lasting at least through the end of the year, the six designs, developed by planners for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, are scheduled to be released to the public today at a news conference at the Federal Hall National Memorial, the landmark building on Wall Street. The designs have undergone several stages of revision even as they have been reviewed with public officials and others in recent days, people involved in the process say (New York Times)

Half of New Yorkers Want to Rebuild the Twin Towers - Jul 14, 2002
A New York Post survey of 609 people in the five boroughs revealed that 48 percent are in favor of rebuilding the World Trade Center towers, while 50 percent oppose it. Two percent were undecided. Sizable majorities in Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx were against rebuilding, as were residents of the West Side. But there was strong support on the East Side, in Midtown and in Brooklyn. Downtown and Chinatown were almost evenly split. (New York Post)

WTC Site: Mayor Has Own Ideas - Jul 14, 2002
After reviewing the six preliminary plans for the World Trade Center site, Mayor Bloomberg declined to embrace any of them, and pledged yesterday to submit his own redevelopment ideas. (New York Daily News)

6 Plans for Ground Zero Share Striking Similarities - Jul 11, 2002
The six official proposals for rebuilding the World Trade Center site, which will be released next Tuesday, all took as a given the need for office space, a hotel, and retail shopping. None of the plans, which will be released to the public next Tuesday, include residential apartments. Although all of the designs set aside space for a memorial, four of them call for construction on the site of the south tower, which goes against the wishes of many family victims groups and Governor George Pataki. (New York Times)

Critics Say "Different" WTC Plans All Alike - Jul 10, 2002
A week before officials unveil a series of design proposals for a rebuilt World Trade Center, the plans are already drawing heat from critics who complain they're too much alike: with each restoring all of the office and retail space lost Sept. 11. (New York Post)

Revised Rebuild Plan Calls for Housing, Parks - Jul 9, 2002
Revised rebuilding guidelines for lower Manhattan call for the creation of a magnificent neighborhood that will be "a symbol of New York City recognized around the world." The updated plans, released yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., generally adhere to the original blueprint unveiled in April. But there are significant changes, including proposals to build more housing, parks, hospitals, and schools. (New York Daily News)

Silver: Slow Down the Process - Jul 1, 2002
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the state's most powerful Democrat, took exception yesterday to Gov. Pataki's weekend pledge not to build on the Twin Towers' two-acre "footprints." Silver, whose lower Manhattan district includes Ground Zero, said he was against any "quick determination, " including Pataki's, as to what kind of a memorial should be built at the site. (New York Post)

Towers' Land to Remain a Memorial, Pataki Says - Jun 30, 2002
Gov. George E. Pataki vowed yesterday at a memorial ceremony for Sept. 11 victims that there would be no commercial development on the land where the twin towers stood. (New York Times)

Mayor Now Not Sure What Size of Memorial Should Be - Jun 26, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg, under increasing fire from 9/11 families, yesterday partly detracted his suggestion that a smaller memorial at the World Trade Center site might be better than a larger one. (New York Post)

The Battle For Ground Zero - May 28, 2002
Time Magazine provides a general survey of the rebuilding process, detailing the different sides involved and the roles the different government agencies have played up till now. The piece also discusses the architectural challenge of rebuilding, as designers struggle to come up with an appropriate solution. (Time)

President of Redevelopment Group Sees Consensus Emerging on Memorial, Overall Plan - May 27, 2002
Louis Tomson, president of Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with rebuilding the World Trade Center site, said that a broad consensus is emerging to develop the site as a cultural, business and transportation hub, including a "reverential" memorial that could take up almost half of the 16-acre site. (Newsday)

Hundreds Attend Public Hearing On Future of World Trade Center Site - May 24, 2002
A crowd of more than 800 people packed a downtown auditorium last night to sound off and listen to a multitude of plans and ideas for rebuilding the World Trade Center site and its surroundings. Many complained that the LMDC, which is charged with overseeing the redevelopment of downtown, had not given enough consideration to the revitalization of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, affordable housing and assistance for displaced workers. Many speakers called for constructing buildings as high or higher than the Twin Towers, while some described ideas for memorial designs and held up drawings of their designs. (Newsday)

Plan For 7 World Trade Center Unveiled - May 14, 2002
Architects for Larry A. Silverstein yesterday provided the first public glimpse of plans to replace the destroyed 7 World Trade Center. The new building would be 52 stories tall (five stories taller than the one it is replacing), a transparent, "light-emanating shaft" designed as a gateway to the planned World Trade Center memorial. The building is scheduled for completion at the end of 2005. (New York Times)

Blueprint for Ground Zero Beginning To Take Shape - May 4, 2002
Although public deliberations have only recently begun over the future of the site known as ground zero, crucial components of what will occur there appear to have already been settled upon by city and state officials. No 100-story office towers are likely to grace the former site of the World Trade Center. Nor is it probable that the entire 16-acre parcel will be set aside for a memorial to victims of the attack on Sept. 11. (New York Times)

Underground World Trade Center Shopping Mall Can Be Rebuilt - Apr 27, 2002
The entire shopping mall that was lost in the World Trade Center attack can be rebuilt below the site, a top Port Authority official said yesterday. The 460,000 square-foot retail mall that was beneath the trade center complex can be rebuilt as part of the "grand concourse" that the Port Authority, which owns the land, is looking at - with most of the shops in the area between Church Street and Greenwich Street. (New York Post)

Memorial May Need Two Years For A Design - Apr 25, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday it could take as long as two years to come up with a fitting design for a World Trade Center memorial. Bloomberg made his comments a day after development officials said they hoped to have a master plan for the disaster site by Dec. 1 -- but conceded it could take longer to design a permanent memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. (New York Daily News)

Engineering Organization Suggests Building Skyscrapers Shorter - Mar 28, 2002
Whatever is rebuilt on the World Trade Center site should be no more than 50 or 60 stories tall, according to a new study by the nation's leading engineering organization. The study, by the Construction Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, also recommends that all buildings at the site be designed to accommodate mass evacuations. In addition,biological and chemical attacks top the list of threats that the new buildings must protect against. (New York Times)

Years of Work Underground Before Steel Reaches Skyward - Mar 27, 2002
Nothing will be built above ground for several years at the site of the World Trade Center because of the extensive underground construction that must be completed first, the chairman of the group overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan said yesterday. Corporation officials also said yesterday that they will lay out details of major components of their building proposals in a yearlong series of publications beginning in May. Those publications will focus on individual subjects, like transportation, residential and commercial development, and the attraction of arts and cultural institutions. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Head John Whitehead Says Consensus Emerging, Supports Biotech Downtown - Mar 26, 2002
Speaking Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, head of the rebuilding authority John Whitehead said there is general agreement that the two 110-story towers destroyed on Sept. 11 should not be duplicated but should be replaced by smaller, mixed-use buildings. However, Whitehead would not answer specific questions about plans for the site. The head of Lower ManhattanÕs rebuilding effort also threw his support behind a downtown bio-technology hub proposed by the New York City Partnership and a coalition of the cityÕs leading medical institutions. (Newsday)

Rebuilding Head John Whitehead Speaks At Business Forum - Mar 26, 2002
Speaking at a Crain's New York Business breakfast forum on Tuesday, Mr. Whitehead gave an update on rebuilding. He acknowledged that the rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center should begin as soon as possible, because construction must start this year on a Con Ed substation on the lower floors of the building to ensure that lower Manhattan has enough power in the summer of 2003. He also said that he expects his agency to have the major components of a plan for rebuilding downtown completed in June. (Crain's New York Business)

Head of Rebuilding Authority Pushes for Quick Start for 7 World Trade Center - Mar 13, 2002
A new 7 World Trade Center should rise from Ground Zero as soon as possible now that major differences that threatened the project have been overcome, lower Manhattan's rebuilding czar John Whitehead said yesterday. Whitehead said speed is a concern with 7 WTC because the building will house an electrical substation needed to ensure adequate power supplies by the summer of 2003. (New York Post)

Guidelines for Downtown Rebuilding To Come Next Month - Mar 13, 2002
The group overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan expects to issue guidelines for the redevelopment project next month and offer detailed plans about many of its proposed projects by June, the group's chairman said yesterday. While not giving details, John Whitehead did acknowledge that there is an "emerging consensus" about several ideas, including restoring at least part of the street grid through the World Trade Center site, converting West Street to a tunnel, and building a transportation hub in Lower Manhattan that might include extensions of the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Will Take 10 Years, Says Head of Rebuilding Authority - Mar 8, 2002
It will take at least a decade to rebuild the World Trade Center site, the head of the agency overseeing the redevelopment of lower Manhattan said yesterday. John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., also said his agency will issue broad guidelines next month on how the devastated 16-acre parcel should be revitalized.

Downtown Coalition Presents Rebuilding Recommendations - Feb 27, 2002
Rebuild Downtown Our Town, R.DOT for short, yesterday presented its initial recommendations for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. The coalition of Lower Manhattan residents, businesses and professionals, advocates a mixed-use, mixed-income district, with connections to local and regional transportation and state-of-the-art communications systems. In many respects, its proposals are similar to those previously made by New York New Visions, a coalition of architects, planners and designers. (Gotham Gazette)

Bloomberg and Pataki Say Rebuilding of Downtown Should Wait for Overall Plan - Feb 27, 2002
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Governor George E. Pataki suggested yesterday that a Manhattan developer should not go ahead with construction at 7 World Trade Center until completion of an overall development plan for Lower Manhattan. The remarks contrast with recent signals from state and city officials on the pace of rebuilding Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Developer Silverstein Presses To Begin Construction On 7 WTC In June - Feb 23, 2002
Larry A. Silverstein, who controls the lease for the 16-acre World Trade Center site, has a new proposal for rebuilding his office tower just to the north of the site, at 7 World Trade Center, that he hopes will finally address all the objections from local residents and downtown officials. But even as Mr. Silverstein presses to begin construction in June, some top state officials, civic organizations and community groups say they are considering whether to scuttle Mr. Silverstein's development rights on the larger and adjacent trade center site and prevent him from taking part in the broader reconstruction project, which promises to be one of the most ambitious urban development programs in the country. (New York Times)

Conflict Between Silverstein, Development Authority Over Rebuilding - Feb 18, 2002
In response to residents' and critics' concerns about Larry Silverstein's intentions to begin rebuilding 7 World Trade Center starting this summer, several Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board members have been arguing that rebuilding 7 WTC should be part of an overall plan for the area. "I know how important the redevelopment of WTC 7 is, [but Silverstein] can't have it the way he wants it: in Greenwich Street," said LMDC board member Paul Crotty at a meeting last week. "It will bottle up the planning on the rest of lower Manhattan." Silverstein's fast-track pace has irked some on the LMDC. Sources said Silverstein met with new LMDC master planner Alexander Garvin late last week to start solving the design problem. LMDC executive director Lou Tomson said the board will come up with a set of goals by late May, and its newly hired master planner, Garvin, will then "translate those goals into various plans." (New York Daily News)

Planner Appointed for Lower Manhattan Development Corporation - Feb 11, 2002
Alexander Garvin, an urban planner, city planning commissioner, and teacher at Yale University, was appointed this weekend to be in charge of coming up with such a development plan. His title will be vice president for planning, design and development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. "The revitalization of lower Manhattan presents many complex challenges," Garvin said. "We need to develop an appropriate way to honor those who perished on Sept. 11. The residents, business and property owners of lower Manhattan expect to get back to normal as quickly as possible." (Crain's New York Business)

State Approves June Rebuilding of 7 World Trade Center - Feb 8, 2002
Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., which oversees the agency in charge of downtown redevelopment, gave a resounding thumbs-up yesterday to starting to rebuild 7 World Trade Center as early as June, despite concerns by some that the timetable is too fast. Larry Silverstein, who built the original 47-story skyscraper on the block between Vesey and Barclay Sts. in 1987, has said he believes he needs only the approval of the Port Authority, which owns the land. Among the concerns of those who worry about the quick rebuilding are how to reorient the building so it does not block Greenwich St., and where to place Con Edison substations and Port Authority cargo bays. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg Lays Out Vision for Downtown - Feb 6, 2002
Mayor Bloomberg vowed yesterday to rebuild lower Manhattan as a bustling 24-hour community. The mayor, speaking at an Association for a Better New York breakfast, said improving downtown transportation is imperative. Bloomberg cited several steps his administration has taken to improve lower Manhattan, including "working aggressively" to reopen the entire Battery Tunnel to all traffic Ñ passenger cars are still banned from entering Manhattan from 6 a.m. to 8p.m. Ñ and the West Side Highway. The city also has formed an emergency task force "to dramatically expand" ferry service in lower Manhattan. Bloomberg also ordered the City Planning Department to evaluate "creative zoning" to permit greater residential, cultural and retail use. The city also will look for sites that offer new housing opportunities. (New York Daily News)

Does New York Need Another Moses? - Feb 4, 2002
Robert Moses, the domineering master builder from a less democratic era in the city's history, comes to mind increasingly as New Yorkers look to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Many wonder how it will ever be accomplished, given clashing agendas and a large and ever- growing cast of characters, not one of them a leader with the kind of power and authority it will take to bring order to fragmentation, vision to necessity. A few New Yorkers are asking if there is something halfway between a willful master builder and decision (or indecision) by committee. (New York Times)

Race To Build At Ground Zero - Jan 29, 2002
Powerful developers Larry Silverstein and Edward J. Minskoff are racing head-to-head to find tenants for two giant office towers they plan at or near Ground Zero. But there's a big difference between the schemes: Silverstein can build without tenants, but Minskoff can't. Silverstein plans to rebuild 7 WTC without pre-leasing, a luxury he can afford thanks to insurance payments from the destruction of the Twin Towers. Minskoff is wasting no time promoting 270 Greenwich, even though he doesn't have the land yet. (New York Post)

Many Voices, but Little Dialogue on Memorial for Trade Center Site - Jan 26, 2002
The rebuilding of Lower Manhattan has the makings of a bitter New York struggle, a dialogue of disparate views of grief, money, power, politics and design, inflamed by differing passions, but with no framework to reconcile them. In all likelihood, that struggle will begin with a memorial. Absent any official guidance, hundreds of people in roughly a dozen ad hoc groups have already started gathering in small numbers and discussing plans for a memorial. But many of the participants say that until their efforts are coordinatedÉ little progress is likely to be made. This contrasts sharply with what happened after the Oklahoma City bombing (New York Times)

WTC Owner Sets Aside Tower Footprints For Memorial Site - Jan 15, 2002
Sources say that Larry Silverstein has instructed architects he has commissioned for the rebuilding of the site of his former World Trade Center to make space for a memorial in their plans. The space set aside would be at the "footprints" of the former Twin Towers.

Meanwhile, September's Mission, a group of relatives of World Trade Center victims, will hold a meeting with designers and architects tomorrow to come up with their own proposals for a memorial covering the entire WTC area. (New York Daily News)

Plan to Start 7 WTC Rebuild 9/11/02 - Jan 14, 2002
Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the destroyed World Trade Center complex, has expressed a desire to begin rebuilding a new 7 World Trade Center building on September 11, 2002. His intentions have been met with opposition from the victims' families, all in full support of a memorial, and by groups who wish to see a rebuilding effort more integrated with the rest of the site. (New York Daily News)

From parks to twisted towers, designs for WTC memorial multiply - Jan 11, 2002
There is no shortage of design ideas for the World Trade Center site, from a 70-story sundial to two towers spiraling down to a 35-foot deep pit. One firm has contemplated a design consisting of 440 evergreens and a below-street waterfall. This initial burst of ideas has been described as therapeutic by some but banal and overly sentimental by others. (Wall Street Journal)

Dozens of Ideas are Floated For WTC Development - Jan 8, 2002
Designers, planners and architects along with politicians and the relatives of the victims of Sept. 11 have offered up a number of ideas for what to develop at the World Trade Center site. Ideas range from permanent memorials to mixed use of commercial and memorial space. In the next ten days, a number of design proposals will be made public at a Chelsea gallery and from the Institute of Urban Design. Ultimately the process will go through the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, most planners agree. (Newsday)

Big Transit Ideas Downtown - Jan 8, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation is looking into plans to create a downtown transit hub around the World Trade Center site. Proposals include an underground mega-hub with retail space and connections to the PATH and 14 subway lines. While short-term needs of resuming PATH and subway service will be addressed quickly, long-term plans could include the construction of a major transportation center and renovation of the nearby Broadway-Nassau/Fulton St. stations. (New York Daily News)

Pitched Battle at Ground Zero - Jan 3, 2002
Larry Silverstein is facing increased opposition to his plans to develop the World Trade Center site. Former Mayor Giul,iani and relatives of some of those who died at the Trade Center are arguing against economic development. But the real threat to Silverstein's plans may come from his fellow real estate developers, some of whom say that new buildings on the site could further depress real estate and actually hinder lower Manhattan's recovery. (New York Observer)

Interim Wtc Park Will Be Built First - Dec 20, 2001
John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., said a temporary memorial, featuring a park, will be built at Ground Zero until the permanent memorial built . (New York Post)

Many Visions for WTC Site - Dec 17, 2001
A number of groups with different interests and visions are fighting to control what will be built on the World Trade Center site. Among those vying for a say are Larry Silverstein and shopping mall giant Westfield, who hold a 99-year lease on the land; the Port Authority, which owns the land and wants to rebuild its damaged PATH lines below it; Mayor Giuliani and Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg; Governor Pataki; the Empire State Development Corp. and its new subsidiary, the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., and people who lost family members on Sept. 11. The job of trying to forge a consensus among these groups could fall to John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., the new agency charged with rebuilding downtown. Whitehead says he will appoint advisory boards, each representing one of the constituencies that want a say in determining what will become of what is now ground zero. (New York Daily News)

Silverstein Sees Mixed Use At WTC Site - Dec 12, 2001
Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease on the World Trade Center site, told Newsday that he is now considering building several office buildings, a museum, a performing arts center and a memorial on the site. In an interview with Newsday he said the buildings would be from 50 to 65 stories high. The performing arts center and museum, he said, would improve the quality of life for families who live in lower Manhattan. The developer, who is currently battling with insurers over how much compensation he will receive for the destruction of the trade center, said he hopes to begin construction next year and finish by 2005. (Newsday)

Coalitions work to create plans for WTC site - Dec 10, 2001
At least four separate ad hoc groups are drawing up plans to guide the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, and expect to funnel their proposals to the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., the new state agency created to oversee the rebuilding of the 16-acre trade center site. The New York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce has created NYC REBUILD, an infrastructure task force.

The American Institute of Architects has put together NEW YORK NEW VISIONS, an umbrella group of 18 organizations to ensure that the planning and design community have a voice.

The Regional Plan Association has organized THE CIVIC ALLIANCE FOR REBUILDING LOWER MANHATTAN, made up of civic, advocacy and environmental groups.

Rebuild Downtown Our Town, known as the R.DOT COALITION, is made up of residents, businesses and planners in Lower Manhattan who are eager to have a say in how their neighborhoods are rebuilt.

The coalitions are hoping that their ideas will give the agency a head start on its deliberations and pave the way for wide public support for its eventual decisions. They have begun talks among themselves on collaborations in an effort to reach a consensus on rebuilding.

"What you want to do is shape a program leading to a master plan," says Bob Yaro, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, who is involved with several of the groups.

But given the broad-based nature of the organizations, conflicting agendas could easily emerge, making it more difficult for the state agency to win public backing for its reconstruction plans. The agency also must contend with the plans of Larry Silverstein, the developer who holds the lease for the World Trade Center buildings, and the many groups of victims' families that have formed to lobby for a memorial on the site. "I'm concerned that we end up with deadlock like we had at Columbus Circle or Times Square, where we had development sites sitting for decades or longer," Mr. Yaro says. (Crain's New York Business)