A New World Trade Center Proposal

New York, New York, USA, 2001-2

SITE’s proposal for a New World Trade Center was part of a special exhibition at the Max Protetch Gallery in New York. In response to the terrorist attack and the need for a re-birth of the community surrounding the destroyed area, this concept is based on replacing the rigidity and lack of human scale within the original WTC plan by means of a more flexible alternative. The intention is to re-connect Lower Manhattan’s highly successful patterns of organic neighborhood development, commercial variety, and cultural diversity. The features of the SITE design are a resurrection of the historic Lower Manhattan East/West and North/South street connections, the creation of an inherently flexible master plan that invites evolutionary change, and the elimination of the tradition of situating massive skyscrapers in vast open spaces. This proposal also encourages sustainable architecture and green design principles in all new construction: It provides a variety of parks, plazas, and roof gardens as well as two pine tree forests in the vacant footprints where the Twin Towers once stood as a means of commemorating the police officers and fireman who perished in the attack. As a memorial to the use of water in saving lives during rescue and cleanup operations, a massive glass water wall and reflecting pool honors the names of all WTC victims. Pine forest satellites radiate from the center of Ground Zero, occupying sites in Harlem, the Bronx, Queens, Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, until there is one memorial tree for every civilian life lost on 9/11.