Plan Description - Introduction
This plan was conceived to address the rebirth of the WTC site in a manner that properly honors those lost, while also serving the needs of the living. The plan features conventional above-ground footprint memorials and re-engineered Twin Towers. It is subject to change as a result of public feedback, official acceptance, and/or unforeseen engineering considerations. The plan features:
- Above ground memorials based on the facades of the original Twin Towers;
- Optional modern Twin Towers in a similar arrangement as the original towers;
- Optional restoration of a friendlier Tobin Plaza (with the Koenig Sphere and fountain) as the central buffering element of the site;
- An optional rescue workers' memorial in the southwest corner;
- Optional additional smaller buildings, including a glass tower of meditation;
- Improved pedestrian access through outdoor and indoor complexes;
- Security issues taken into consideration;
- Optional restoration of up to 500,000 square feet of hotel space;
- Optional restoration of Greenwich Street or Fulton Street, possibly under ground;
- In its final configuration, a Floor Area Ratio of 15 or less;
- Ability to phase space into the market.
- If it is deemed preferable to avoid concentration of resources at the site, twin interconnected versions of the Las Vegas Stratosphere could be substituted for twin towers.
Memorial Complex
The footprint-based memorials would be delineated with about five stories of skin from the original Twin Towers or a replica. This combined with the rebuilt towers in the background would leave no doubt as to what happened, resulting in a powerful memorial. Within each footprint there could be a granite or similar wall with the names of those who died in that particular building.
A third equally appropriate space could memorialize all those who were not associated with either Tower, such as rescue workers.
Standard practice for national memorials is to have the arrangement and placement of names approved by a committee of surviving family members.
Click for images of Memorial proposals.
As an option within the footprints, visitors could embark on a spiraling journey down to bedrock.
Between the two Tower footprints there could be a 12-story tower of meditation.
Twin Towers
With these plans the Yamasaki Twin Towers return, with several enhancements and modifications over the originals. Different tower designs are possible, and committees would recommend the final design.
The new Twin Towers illustrated on this website differ from the originals in the following ways:
- They would each consist of 111 to 115 floors with a 12-foot floor-to-floor height. (Up to 14-foot floor-to-floor height is being considered with possible changes in building height.)
- The North Tower (Tower 1) would be at least 1,475-feet tall and could feature an optional 383-foot mast for communication transmissions, which is a 135-foot increase in height. At 1,858 feet, the North Tower would qualify as the World's Tallest Building. Windows on the World would be featured near its uppermost floors.
- The South Tower (Tower 2) would be at least 1,475 feet tall, featuring indoor and outdoor observatory decks. Both Towers would retain about the same dimensions at their base: 215 feet per side (exterior).
- They would be a tube-within-a-tube design. The exterior skin would feature columns two-feet square, spaced 4 feet 8-7/8 inches apart (possibly more), resulting in a much stronger design (5 times minimum), while permitting larger windows admitting more natural sunlight. The core would feature the same columns as the exterior skin, and its walls would be of reinforced concrete.
- Fireproofing will be of improved technologies rather than the spray-on coatings used previously. Elevators would be of fireproof design, and the towers would have advanced fire-fighting systems. All buildings proposed in this project would be subject to New York City Fire and Building Codes.
- Either tower would withstand a plane crash better than the proposed Freedom Tower. Each building would have more and wider stairwells than the originals.
- The towers might be connected by retractable pedestrian conveyor skybridges at the top, the sky lobbies, and above the ground floor lobby.
- Modeled on the Time-Warner Center, the most successful real estate project in New York City, the towers are presently planned to have commercial space on the lower floors, hotel space on the middle floors, and residential and public space on the the upper floors.
Retail, Transportation, and Public Facilities
The remaining areas on the site could be used for various purposes, including a museum, parks, or commercial or public buildings.
Entrances to the Path train and subways are located throughout the site.
Reasons to Adopt the Plan
Quality respectful memorials. The plan offers memorials that are historically meaningful and practical. The memorials honor the original Tower footprints and incorporate them into the site in substantive ways. They are much preferred by the victims' families, are cheaper in all ways than the meaningless LMDC memorials, and have less risk.
Economics and public opinion. New Twin Towers would stimulate the economy (including tourism) far more than the four towers of the Libeskind plan. They would be more attractive and better for morale. Private investors are willing to finance new Twin Towers. In polls the public has consistently shown support for rebuilding the Twin Towers by a large majority.
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Libeskind ground zero The Freedom Tower
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