New World Trade Center Site Design Concepts

The Cigarette Smoking Man

The seven new designs for the WTC site have been released:

http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/wtc_site/new_design_plans/default.asp

I think the best ones are these three:
Studio Daniel Libeskind
Foster and Partners
THINK Design

The last one is very interesting, but there's no way the Port Authority will let that be built because of the lack of office space in it.

miju

I really, really like the SOM, Sanna design as well as the United Architects.

The Foster & Partners effort is very ugly and defcaces New York much like what the Spike will do over here.

THINK Design is a beautiful design but it is very, VERY unpractical.

Studio Dansiel looks like a mini city of the future in some SCI-FI so that ones out the window as well.

So if I was the one making the decision I'd narrow it down to those two and more than likely I'd award the project to UNITED ARCHITECTS

SO MY MONEY IS ON UNITED ARCHITECTS ANYONE DIS/AGREE?

GoneShootin

SOM

DiscoStu

I would go for the united architects design. very different yet does not hurt the surrounding skyline and massive office space. its daring yet conservative at the same time.

halkar

Wooow!! And we are trying to put the Spike up :rolleyes:

I like the Foster and Partners design not sophisticated and complicated

Victor

Originally posted by the-raptor
SO MY MONEY IS ON UNITED ARCHITECTS ANYONE DIS/AGREE?

I WONDER WHO HAS SHARES IN UNITED ARCHITECTS! :rolleyes: I don't like the UA one - images of monsters overlooking the site come to mind.

There is a similar thread to this on After Hours. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=683002#post683002

BattleBoar

I really like the United Achitects design as well, but I am really partial to the design by Daniel Libeskind. To me, it just seems to have a brilliant elegance. Its the only one that really "speaks" to me - particularly slide 30...it just seems as though it belongs there.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

I suppose I should have looked at all the slides rather than just the last few. The United Architects one is quite good. If it was my choice I'd go for the Think Design one, but that's just because I did Structural Engineering in college

bonkey

Personally, I'd turn the place into a memorial park, with no high-rise crap there at all.

I would have some small monument bearing a plaque saying :

We cherish the memory of those who were stolen from us, and promise to honour their loss by remembering how easily the most mighty can be humbled.

America doesnt need another high-rise to prove to the terrorists that "what you knock down we can rebuild". They need something to remind them that they too are mortal.

jc

DadaKopf

Do you really think that some of the most expensive real estate in the world will be left undeveloped? No way.

Anyway, there *is* going to be a park. It's just that the park will be part of a complex mixed-use development.

The competition's brief, from what I can tell, is to do many things at once: preserve the memory of those who died and suffered as a result of the attacks; defy the infidel by building something bigger, taller and stronger; rethink urban space in a global city and hold it up to the rest of the world; act as the keystone of a wider Lower Manhattan regeneration project.

All these needs have to be satisfied - just a building or just a visitors' centre or just a park wouldn't be enough.

Edit:Oh, and I think United Architects' entry is going to win, although I want it to be Libeskind.

CCCP^

CCCP^ raises the dead.

I dont think any one of the design's are safe. Building SkyScraper's is lunacy. I can understand that because land is very expsensive, developers have built upwards, but I cannot condone it.

Imagine if the Tower's had still been hit, but didnt collapse. The attempt to control the fire's raging within the structure would have been in vain.

The Fire-fighter's alone could not have controlled the fire. Conventional fire fighting equipment like Fire Trucks couldnt reach the flame's hundreds of feet above them.

The developer's seem to have learnt nothing.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Originally posted by CCCP^
CCCP^ raises the dead.
I dont think any one of the design's are safe. Building SkyScraper's is lunacy. I can understand that because land is very expsensive, developers have built upwards, but I cannot condone it.

Building skyscrapers isn't lunacy - flying a plane into one is. If you have a look at all of the designs, all the structures are joined at at least one point above ground level. So if one of the escape routes is blocked, people above that floor can exit through the other buildings.

Imagine if the Tower's had still been hit, but didnt collapse. The attempt to control the fire's raging within the structure would have been in vain.

The Fire-fighter's alone could not have controlled the fire. Conventional fire fighting equipment like Fire Trucks couldnt reach the flame's hundreds of feet above them.

All high rise structures have dry or wet risers in them - basically a dry riser is a pipe that runs from the outside of the ground level to each floor in the buildings. So the fire truck comes along and pumps water in at ground level and the firemen can tap into that pipe at any floor. A wet riser is the same as a dry one except that there's always high pressure water in it.

DadaKopf

The developer's seem to have learnt nothing.

So you've closely inspected all the detailed architectural drawings, yeah?

Every effort's been made to make these skyscrapers the safest in the world - but then I'm only judging that from that website. I haven't inspected the blueprints myself.

Amon

They are all undoubtably beautiful and would make any New Yorker or American proud, I think that should be said to start. However, the most beautiful and astonishing designs are that of SOM, THINK Design and Richard Meier. I think from a conceptual point of view the THINK design is outstanding and truly would be a world-wide marvel, however if sense and practicality were to play a role in the decision the SOM structure would most likely be the 'best' option. Personally if I were Mayor Juliano I would push for the construct of the THINK strucute due to the fact that everyone wants to see something different, imaginative, beautiful and something that will make New York once again a major contendor in the beautiful cities of the world league.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

You can vote for your favourite design here:

http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=26607

There's also videos of each of the designs (* Broadband)

Victor

Originally posted by Amon
Personally if I were Mayor Juliano I would push for the construct of the THINK strucute

He is no longer Mayor.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

bonkey

Oh FFS.

Grow up and learn how to use tenses in your sentences, and how to read and understand them in other people's.


jc

Gordon

I think that was daveirl meaning Juliano wasn't mayor but Giuliani was tbh.

I think it is mad that they are not levelling the place and just putting a nice garden of memorial with maybe a nice fountain and relaxing trees. Why try and build a big two fingers at the 'terrorists' that be in the world? Have they not learned from this.

DadaKopf

I don't think there's any other way than to rebuild. Leaving it as a park would have been a weak response and wouldn't aid the healing process - not of the American people, but of the city's fabric. So what they've decided to do is very clever: preserve the site as a park, yes, but also build on it - build bigger, stronger, better. They're creating a place for remembering, healing (emotional healing of the victims and the city's fabric) and looking forward.

What they've done is used this opportunity to develop a new kind of urban space - they're kind of dragging a Blade Runner kind of city into reality by creating a model of modern, integrated urban living.

I think this is especially what the benefit of the redevlopment is. Instead of focusing on the replacement as a bastion of capitalism, they're consciously focusing on society, health, sustainability and, of course, efficiency and profit (it's New York afterall). It'll be an example to the world. A park would have completely negated this opportunity.

On the other hand, it could all just be another example of classic American style re-branding - "we've been hurt but we know how to make it all happy and OK again". In the meantime, nothing changes at all.

I just hope a Yank doesn't win the competition.

Gordon

I think an American would be more likely to win the competition.

So they are going to have a park also? Hmm that sounds cool.

Ah feckit, who are we to say what they should have though in all honesty.

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Reports Thursday indicated a group of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation members know exactly where they're going – toward one plan by German architect Daniel Liebskind and another conceived by the Think team of Fred Schwartz and Rafael Vignoly.

http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=27567

I think I predicted both of those

The Cigarette Smoking Man

After the committee recommended that they build the Think design, they've been over ruled and they're now going with the Libeskind design:

http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=28221

I don't think the Port Authority would ever have let them away with the Think design considering there's hardly any office space in it.

More:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ny-libeskindgallery,0,4720765.photogallery?index=1

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ATTACKS_REDEVELOPMENT?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://www.renewnyc.org

DadaKopf

Wow, I'm stunned and amazed. I absolutely can't wait to see this completed! It was by far the best design, in my opinion, but I honestly couldn't have seen the Yanks going for it - both too flashy and certainly too European for their tastes. Even worse: German!

Fantastic. This is Libeskind's crowing achievement.

BattleBoar

I agree Dada, I thought this design was by far the best and I'm very pleased indeed!

PS - Daniel Libeskind was born in Poland and now works primarily from Germany, but he is American by immigration (obtained US citizenship in 1965)

Link

DadaKopf

Ahh, cool. Didn't know that. Still, he's unmistakably a European architect. Himself and A. Wehjert who designed the UCD Arts block! Deadly.

daveirl

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Éomer of Rohan

I personally think not only should the idea of a new world trade centre be considered obscene since invariably the world trade centre catered only to those with money but also because the foundation of the Bretton Woods and WTC organisations are based on taking money from LEDC's and transferring it to MEDC's without any gain for the LEDC and losses including trade sanctions if they don't comply. The whole idea is rubbish.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Éomer of Rohan

Less Economically Developed Countries and More Economically Developed Countries

Unless you are some sort of Darwinian based economist, I doubt you can disagree with me.

Originally posted by Éomer of Rohan
I personally think not only should the idea of a new world trade centre be considered obscene since invariably the world trade centre catered only to those with money

Well trade is what makes money circulate, are you arguing against private ownership and business here?

taking money from LEDC's and transferring it to MEDC's without any gain for the LEDC

Thats what U.S Companies did in our less economically developed country, but we did become a more Economically developed country as a result.
90,000 jobs from U.S companies by 2002 did help society here, plus huge injections from the rest of the larger European Economies.
But then I suppose, we didn't spend, spend , spend on arms , and cleverly worked the system to get us to todays position-Good on us! What a model for the rest of the world and a democracy , to boot!
mm