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WORLD TRADE CENTER RESURRECTION
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M A R K D E R R * A R C H I T E C T
Madison WI. * MarkDArchitect@aol.com
WORLD TRADE CENTER RESURRECTION
This is a design I did in 2002 which strives to build a bridge across the chasm between the group of people who wish to rebuild the towers exactly as they were, which is not really architecturally practical, and those who would like to see the resurrection take an entirely new direction.
This design accomplishes what I thought was an appropriate degree of both those goals by wrapping.the two new towers around the empty space of the missing towers and defining it with vertical interface walls - which are detailed to replicate the exact facade of the original towers. These walls are reflected in the waters of two memorial pools that have the exact shape of the original footprints, so that people looking into the pool can see their reflection. The goal of that is to enshrine the memory of what used to be, by embracing it within the soaring buttresses of a new beginning.
Character is a jewel that is polished by adversity, so this concept strives to create a
worthy memorial to two equally sacred things; our country's loss and our resolve to
overcome.
The site sholud be resurreced in the form of two towers that shimmer are like jewels in the dawn of a new and better day, so that there is never the shadow of a doubt that America is a lighthouse in a foggy world.
I think that New Yorker's should not simply take back the skyline, but instead elevate it to a higher place - by exactly 2752" - the number of souls who perished there on that day.
These are the glass and metal spires of light which crown each of the towers….and should be visible across 200 miles of open sea on a clear night-and glow with the same light as the torch of the statue of liberty.
Terrorism has administered a severe body blow to us and we as a nation will be symbolically defined in this century by the form of our architectural counterpunch to it.
The five elements that form the foundation of this design are:
1) A sacred determination to preserve the exact footprints of the original towers and prevent them from being built over or trodden upon in any way. They are a national gravesite that commands the same magnitude of respect that we have for the souls who rest in our national cemeteries.
2) An architectural homage should be offered to the original towers by replicating a portion of them in some highly significant way to enshrine this hallowed ground. This is a crucial criterion which might allow for a design that effectively bridges the gap between a considerable number of people who would like to see the towers rebuilt as they were and those of us who understand that this is not really a practical architectural or engineering alternative.
3) The New York City skyline must be taken back in a manner that is both artistically inspiring and architecturally cost effective. This seems to translate to the necessity to provide about 7 to 10 million square feet of Class A emphasized rentable floor space (from what I have read). Whatever the program target square footage is, it should be enclosed in an architecturally significant and elegantly feasible structural framework.
4) The new structures should not only take back the skyline, but also elevate to a higher place. In this design concept, it is exactly 2,801 inches higher---which is the number of souls that perished there, according to the most recent information I have. This is a sacred number that I think should be incorporated into the new design in some architecturally significant way.
5) The safety of very tall buildings can be significantly improved. There are many methods to accomplish this, but maybe this project should set an example by achieving that goal in the simplest possible way. That would be to choose a geometry which forces the occupant load of every floor of the building to diminish in an inverse proportion to its distance from the ground below.
Valid concerns about the safety of high rise buildings have been raised, and they are addressed in this design with the conviction that very tall buildings can be constructed more safely if two simple principles are employed and mandated by code.
1) The occupant load of a floor should diminish in a reasonable inverse proportion to its distance from the ground below. This mathematical ratio should be a function of several factors, so that overall safety can be achieved without the sacrifice of economical construction feasibility. This does not mean that all tall structures must have a pyramidal form, because the crucial factor is emergency evacuation time for every floor and this can also be achieved with an ascending ratio of exits per occupant.
2) The structural engineering design should be guided by the "bundled tube" concept rather than the floor diaphragm braced column, or "cards and toothpicks" structural configuration which supported the former World Trade Center towers. This method would insure that any catastrophic structural failure will be localized so as not to destabilize the entire building.
The footprint of the new towers plus the memorial areas where the original towers once stood would occupy less than 40% of the sixteen acre site and that ratio could be adjusted up or down to accommodate the needs of the architectural program for the towers and the necessary low rise ancillary support buildings.
The cost per square foot of a structure must be balanced with the income it generates in order to qualify as a coherent work of architecture.
Architecture is frozen music, but this music should not play in a vacuum. It must be composed upon the balance sheet of commodity with the pen of construction practicality. Accordingly, this design provides 8 to 9 million rentable square feet with a high ratio of exterior glass to floor area provided by deep convolutions in the exterior faces of the pyramidal shaped towers. This geometric form would also serve to strengthen the overall structure.
The symbolic meaning of this structure demands an artistically detailed form that would not be required of comparable developments of a similar scale, so I believe that the monumental nature of this project warrants a valid and appropriate expectation that a portion of the initial construction cost would come from both public and private contributions so as to insure its economic viability.
These drawings do not show all of the facade articulations and convolutions that would add interest and interior light, or all of the ground level landscaping and covered promenades that would give the project a welcoming pedestrian scale, but it does illustrate the major elements of a concept which embraces some things that some of us feel should be a first step toward a design that speaks to or nations highest motivations - and also our enemies attempts to diminish them.
THE DESIGN THAT WAS SELECTED
It is much better suited to a site located somewhere in Disneyland than to this
memorial site. To me, it is like suggesting that the cliffs and beaches of Normandy
would make a dandy waterslide amusement park, or that maybe little roundtop at
Gettysburg would be enhanced by the addition of a Ferris Wheel.
With all due respect to the architect, I have to say that it as imaginative, but in a
fashionably abstract way. Unfortunately, it seems to have more to do with
architectural whimsy than with a worthy response to the deeply symbolic demands of
this project.
In my humble “front line” oriented professional judgment, the structural formsproposed
is architecturally clumsy downright silly. Also, it appears to be spatially inefficient and
breathtakingly costly to construct.
But most importantly, it seems to suffer from a bewildering amnesia about the
buildings that stood there for 30 years and the souls they entombed in less than 30
seconds. And I find that deeply disturbing.
I don’t think any architect would intentionally say to the ghosts of the victims, "You
can have a little place off to the side and out of the way, but don't expect us to allow
the memory of you and your dead buildings to influence this architectural design in any
significant way, because that just doesn't fit MY style..."
But in my opinion, the current design seems to view the original towers that stood
there for so long as nothing more than dead debris that should be swept away without
a trace in order to pave the way for a stupendous pile of architectural style---rather than
a sacred place that should be enshrined with elements of the architecture of the
original towers---and I do not think that a ragged piece of an original foundation wall is
enough to adequately memorialize the victims, the original towers, or the day they all
perished.
We can do better for ourselves.
We should do better for them.
One of the fundamental challenges of architecture is to weld the words “respect” and
“spectacular” together into a physical form that takes our client’s breath away. And in
this case, the client should include all the citizens of America.
I don’t believe that anyone wants the survivors, the memory of the victims and the
historical significance of the shining towers that stood there for so long to feel that
they were just a pesky inconvenience in the design process---which was ultimately be
bulldozed into insignificance by an overwhelming new structure that memorialized
them as a footnote.
The new towers should breathtakingly magnificent amd deeply respectful tribute to those poeple and that day.
If you would like to see that happen, write a letter to former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, New York State Governor George Pataki, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomburg, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
Let them know what you think.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
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http://www.hometown.aol.com/markdarchitect/myhomepage/index.html
Your comments and suggestions are welcome, so feel free to email me at markdarchitect@aol.com
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