An Unexpected Unity, continued

In other revisions before his final selection, Libeskind created more entrances to the memorial site, and made some other building designs more boxy, and thus more appealing to developers in terms of rentable space. The revisions were not a process forced on him, Libeskind says. “Working with the stakeholders was helpful.”

In the end, it is hard to predict what will be built. Every big city has its political factions, governmental subdivisions, power brokers, and complex network of regulations and procedures. New York might have more than most. But when insurance monies materialize for the destroyed buildings, development will proceed. And when it does, Libeskind will have an extraordinary degree of design control. In March, the LMDC and Port Authority named him “Master Design Architect” for the redevelopment, making him perhaps the most powerful architect in the world right now.

His contract with the Port Authority includes design oversight of the new transportation terminal and underground concourses. He will also set the design guidelines for commercial buildings at the site down to the square footage, building outlines, height, and floor sizes, so that architects working directly for developers will conform to his master plan. Libeskind’s contract with the LMDC covers the memorial, the cultural space, and the museum. LMDC will also oversee the competition to design a memorial on the 4.7 acre Memorial Garden.

Billie Tsien, New York architect and LMDC board member, wrote before the final selection that “whoever wins will have to be a person with the ego and the interest in manipulating the system—a person who can hang in there for the long run.” This description fits Daniel Libeskind, who exhibited those qualities in Berlin. He says, “You have to be there, to speak to all the stakeholders, you have to be committed, you have to have the passion to be there until the end.” In his telephone interview, he said the next step is to implement his concept, to move to New York “to work with New Yorkers, to whom the site belongs.” He and his wife, Nina, the firm’s business manager, will now divide their time between New York and the Berlin office.

Libeskind’s intent, he says, is to “recreate the neighborhood that was once there, to give dignity to the heroes who died there, and to affirm optimistically the future of the greatest city in the world.”

Planner Robert Yaro emphasizes that Ground Zero is not about real estate—“it’s about an iconic new place, a setting for a memorial, a powerful concept.” This is the beginning of a long saga, but whatever happens, Daniel Libeskind will have his say.

Virginia Fairweather writes about architecture and engineering.

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Penn in the Process
Eugenie Birch, chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at GSFA, was one of quite a few Penn faculty or alumni who were part of the planning process for the redevelopment of the 16-acre World Trade Center site. She was on the executive committee of the pro-bono group of architects and design professionals, New York New Visions (NYNV), and was chosen to represent the group on a six-member screening panel that cut the list of 406 candidate proposals down to six, she says. She and other NYNV members also critiqued all of the finalist proposals.

The group helped develop “Listening to New York” forums during the year, getting feedback from a cross-section of citizens and stakeholders, Birch adds. These were conducted with the Civil Alliance, created in October 2001 by Robert D. Yaro, Practice Professor of City and Regional Planning at GSFA, and head of the Regional Planning Association. The RPA is an 82-year old civic group that focuses on long-range planning for the tri-state area. The alliance included about 85 representatives of the business sector, a wide array of design professionals and academics. The final meeting attracted close to 5,000 participants, and at the end of the day, it was clear, says Yaro, that the public wanted a great design and a better selection process.

On the personal level, Laura Starr GLA’84 is a landscape architect with a family, who lives and works near Ground Zero. She was “emotionally numb” after 9/11, she says, but she and Katherine I. Mathews GLA’83 quickly decided to do a design workshop with the community, in which, for example, area residents were asked to map where they went on a typical day. The meetings were not only a way to get a lot of ideas, they offered rejuvenation, she says. “Looking at the possibilities to improve the neighborhood was healing.”