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Changes Announced to Plans for WTC Site
by Etta Sanders
Architect Daniel Libeskind, along with officials of the LMDC and Port
Authority, presented a "refined" version of his master plan
for the World Trade Center site on Sept. 17. The changes remove truck
access and transportation infrastructure from the footprints, an aspect
of the original plan that some victim's families fiercely opposed. The
revised plan also moves more than 1 million square feet of office space
to a new building south of Liberty Street and creates a new park between
Liberty and Cedar Streets.
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The changes, Libeskind said, "reduce
the overall density of the site to give the site room to breathe,
make the memorial meaningful and eliminate sub-grade structural conflicts."
The revisions also increase the amount of public space, he said, without
the reducing commercial footage.
Many of the signature features of the plan, the 1776-foot spire attached
to a 70-story office tower in the northwestern corner of the site,
the Wedge of Light, and the exposed slurry wall remain the same, Libeskind
said.
Since the choice of the Libeskind plan in February, rebuilding officials
have been working to reconcile conflicts between commercial and memorial
demands-the need to replace more than 10 million square feet of office
space, restore 600,000 square feet of retail, provide new cultural
facilities, restore and expand transportation |
infrastructure, while leaving
the footprints of the towers untouched for a memorial.
"We tried dozens and dozens of solutions," said Anthony
Cracchiolo, director of priority capital programs for the Port Authority.
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The current solutions rely upon using the site of 130 Liberty
Street, the building that had been occupied by Deutsche Bank
and remains covered in black cloth. One of the key uses of
that site will be to route trucks directly off West Street
into a security zone along Liberty Street, rather than beneath
the memorial site as originally proposed.
The LMDC is currently in discussion with Deutsche Bank, which
has said the building is unsafe and will need to be torn down.
Two of the insurers of the building, however, have asserted
the building can be renovated and used.
"The fact remains that we need to acquire the Deutsche
Bank building," said Joseph Seymour, executive director
of the Port Authority, "It's either going to be through
eminent domain or through negotiations."
By shifting some of the office space into an off-site building,
the two office towers along Church Street can
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be made slimmer. Less massive buildings will increase the amount of
light and air on the east side of the site, as well as making the
office and retail space more marketable, Libeskind said. The juxtaposition
of those buildings will also be altered to allow for more stores at
street level, including the possibility of a single retail store of
up to 140,000 square feet, according to Andrew Winters, LMDC Vice
President and Director of Planning, Design and Development
Still to be determined is where hundreds of buses that will bring
tourists to the site will be parked, a predominant concern of neighborhood
residents. "We are still looking at several locations,"
said Winters. One option, shown at the presentation, is in Battery
Park City at the northwest corner of West and Vesey streets. A final
decision will be made in the next two to three months, according to
Winters.
Another issue of contention has been the proposed burying of West
Street, which has been opposed as too costly and disruptive by a vocal
group of Battery Park City residents. Although the LMDC said no final
decision has been made, a three-dimension model of the new plan presented
on Sept.17 includes a West Street tunnel.
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