Comments on: WTC v2.1

WTC v2.1

keswick — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:09:47 -0800

A new design for the "Freedom Tower"-- the skyscraper that will form the heart of the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York-- has been unveiled. The new tower will be slimmer, straighter and more conventional, it will be set farther back from the street, and it will be placed atop a mammoth, 200-foot concrete-and-metal pedestal designed to repel explosions.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:25:29 -0800

it's official. i hate the word freedom.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:26:27 -0800

So is this the new design or the old one? The design fact sheet and images seem similar to the piece mentioned in the story, but I didn't see anything on the site that said it's the newly unveiled design.

By: keswick

keswick — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:31:55 -0800

I believe that's the new one. The spire is centered on the new design.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:32:50 -0800

And of course, a pedestal won't stop planes or missiles or whatever the future develops. I can already imagine how repellent this will be from ground level--it'll make the concrete, ugly, windy plaza that used to be there look good.

By: juggernautco

juggernautco — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:33:39 -0800

Works for me. Let's build it.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:34:45 -0800

I like the way the French Tower looks.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:43:50 -0800

The Empire State Building is almost 75 years old. It is over 100 stories and is still one of the tallest handful of buildings in the world after all this time. It was a truly monumental achievement of human engineering. It took barely a year to build, from March of 1930 to May of 1931. At this point I don't care if they build a giant 2001 monolith on the WTC. But build SOMETHING for god's sake.

By: absalom

absalom — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:55:23 -0800

I love that freedom tower is 1776 feet tall.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:26:58 -0800

This is a brilliant strategy-- the next wave of terrorists will not hit this because it is demoralizing to Americans already.

By: Staggering Jack

Staggering Jack — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:39:37 -0800

I still vote for the Gaudi design. My ballot must have been lost in the mail, though.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 19:45:00 -0800

Nice, MC.

By: gsteff

gsteff — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:11:29 -0800

I love that freedom tower is 1776 feet tall. I dislike that. Its the main thing people will remember about the tower, and its an cold, intellectual symbolism. The tower should inspire people through form and emotions. Maybe it will; I'm not crazy about the design, but I won't rule out the possibility that others might love it. But even if they do, the hamhandedness of the 1776 gimmick will distract everyone from appreciating it on a more instinctual level. People will wonder whether the number of floors is also symbolic, or whether the pedestal represents the Constitution, or other such nonsense.

By: cytherea

cytherea — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:14:26 -0800

NOOOOOOOOO!

By: bugmuncher

bugmuncher — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:34:49 -0800

NOOOOOOOOO! You're the man now, dog. Call me nuts, but didn't Trump propose making better WTC buildings based on the original design? Wouldn't that be cool?

By: fungible

fungible — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:35:14 -0800

Why don't we just call it the "We're Scared Little Pussies Tower" and be done with it. Whatever happened to Trump's call for rebuilding the twin towers? Guy's a freaky megalomaniac, but in this case, he had some good points.

By: fungible

fungible — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:36:04 -0800

By: fungible

fungible — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:37:35 -0800

I was so mad, I had to say it twice. Fucking mefi servers.

By: cell divide

cell divide — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:09:40 -0800

Dude, just rebuild the original towers. They were ugly, but they were great. This concrete base is the ugliest possible thing you can imagine at street level, which is where people in the neighborhood will have to live with this disaster. This tower seems as if it were designed by someone playing an emotional version of SimCity-- notice how all the pictures of it are from afar.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:16:04 -0800

A mast containing a Metropolitan Television Alliance antenna fills the remaining height, and will emit light, earning the name Beacon of Freedom. It doesn't take much to be a Beacon of Freedom these days.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:29:59 -0800

Dude, just rebuild the original towers. They were ugly, but they were great. The "rebuild" plans actualy call for a diffrent window design. The same from far away, but nice looking up close. And yeah, this is some fugly shite. "Freedom tower" with ugly design. Every day we can look at our giant pussy spire and think "The terrorist cut us down." Mayor Curly is right (shock of shocks). To be honest, I think we should just not build anything for a while I mean, why do we need to rebuild right away, huh? Let it sit for 20, 30 years and after the passage of time we can choose something fitting. Whatever we put up (barring another attack) Will probably be standing for thousands of years, seriously. There's no reason to rush this, and certanly no reason to put up a monument to the fact that no one wants to work at the WTC site....

By: gompa

gompa — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:34:21 -0800

Why don't we just call it the "We're Scared Little Pussies Tower" and be done with it. Interesting concept, but needs work. How about the "Terrorists Have Already Won Tower"? Maybe this'll fool the terrorists into not even wanting to attack it. Also: how about if it's just a hollow shell that nobody's allowed to enter? Can't have a terrorist attack if there's nobody home to attack, know what I mean? Just a thought. As Dan Rather liked to say: Courage.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:40:23 -0800

NYTimes:A Tower of Impregnability, the Sort Politicians Love The darkness at ground zero just got a little darker. If there are people still clinging to the expectation that the Freedom Tower will become a monument to the highest American ideals, the current design should finally shake them out of that delusion. Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project suggests a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world. ...

By: clevershark

clevershark — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:18:25 -0800

It looks like a great big syringe shooting smack into the sky. Frankly I knew the terrorists had already won when it was decided not to rebuild the towers as they were. When I read about that "1776 feet" bullshit, well... I knew that Americans had dropped all pretense of not exploiting 9/11 for jingoistic ends. Liebeskind's design will be the biggest architectural abortion to grace any city, anywhere.

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 01:04:48 -0800

This isn't Libeskind's design, clevershark. (I actually don't mind this design from afar. Close-up, though ... )

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 01:06:56 -0800

To clarify: I liked Lebeskind's design, too, a lot more than this one.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 02:32:13 -0800

Feardom Tower.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 03:58:39 -0800

fire&wings wins. Q) How come they didn't just build it to be the tallest building in the world again? A) Because Osama wouldn't like that. Q) Why did they pull our bases from Saudi Arabia? A) Because that's what Osama wanted. Q) Why did they attack Iraq? A) Because Osama hated Saddam. Q) Why do they do what Osama wants? A) Because President George W. Bush is a big chicken shit.

By: Jairus

Jairus — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:05:28 -0800

Man, you guys have really outdone yourselves this time.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:08:27 -0800

I suggested they pipe in p-funk through a building-wide intercom system and call it the tower of power, but no one listened to me.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:15:08 -0800

They can reinforce that sucker all they want; it still won't stand a chance against Godzilla.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:16:51 -0800

If we build it, will they come? Tenants, I mean.

By: absalom

absalom — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:56:37 -0800

gsteff: Sorry, I guess I should have put sarcasm tags on my last comment. It struck me as monumentally silly. (Pun!)

By: Plutor

Plutor — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:07:59 -0800

delmoi: "Whatever we put up (barring another attack) Will probably be standing for thousands of years, seriously." If the Freedom Tower is still standing in one thousand years, I will give you one thousand dollars. (Barring another attack, of course.)

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:26:20 -0800

Naming it the "Freedom Tower" is a good idea. The WTC was hit because it was the strongest symbol of American Global Capitalism in the country. Hence, the name "World Trade Center." The Pentagon was attacked because it was the strongest symbol of American Military Action in the country. What are the symbols of freedom in this country? Statue of Liberty? Liberty Bell? Any targets that had anything to do with freedom were conspicuously absent from being a target. No one hates American freedom. People hate that American capitalism and military are being pushed into their countries, so they attacked those symbols. Therefore, "Freedom Tower" is as good a name as any.

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:37:07 -0800

Damn, amberglow, that review you link doesn't pull any punches. I think Ouroussoff is getting more and more pissed off with each new development in this train wreck: For better or worse, it will be seen by the world as a chilling expression of how we are reshaping our identity in a post-Sept. 11 context . . . . . The temptation is to dismiss it as a joke. And it is hard not to pity Mr. Childs Ouch! And IndigoJones, I really question whether tenants will come. I work in a bog-standard average high-rise in midtown, and we're practically strip searched coming in in the morning. Going to work down there, between security procedures, hordes of tourists outside, and now nasty 20-storey pedestal will be an incredibly unpleasant experience.

By: mek

mek — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:45:15 -0800

BUT THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM

By: Jack Karaoke

Jack Karaoke — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:51:19 -0800

Well.. the paperweight manufacturers can't be unhappy with the Times assessment, it's practically ready-made for the gift shop.

By: gorgor_balabala

gorgor_balabala — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:00:51 -0800

Oooh ooh ooh can we have the Olympics pleeeease? Sorry-ass bleeding-heart suck-ass town with its fancypants new tower of queefdom.

By: Western Infidels

Western Infidels — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:07:40 -0800

Does this mean we'll also be armor-plating the bottom 200 feet of the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, the Washington Monument, and all the rest of the approximately 2 jillion other skyscraping structures in the country?

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:10:18 -0800

I'm still voting for "Fort Awesome."

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:20:01 -0800

I'm still voting for "Fort Awesome." Consider me right behind you on that bandwagon.

By: agregoli

agregoli — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:25:06 -0800

Whatever we put up (barring another attack) Will probably be standing for thousands of years, seriously. I'm of the mind that nothing we build will be here in thousands of years. Certainly not this monstrosity.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:29:10 -0800

cell divide writes ". This tower seems as if it were designed by someone playing an emotional version of SimCity-- notice how all the pictures of it are from afar." Yep all it needs is razor wire and you've got any of a number of unfriendly buildings from science fiction. clevershark writes "Frankly I knew the terrorists had already won when it was decided not to rebuild the towers as they were." Been a lot of advances in building technology since the 60's, it makes sense to go in a different direction with an inspired design.

By: Caviar

Caviar — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:29:31 -0800

Since when does "one tower" evoke "two towers"?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:30:49 -0800

that NYT thing rocks, no? : > (it was even posted on its own here) Has anyone heard anything about which companies want in on this horror? Usually you'd have heard that a big bank/broker/lawfirm would have been involved by now. And the originals never got to full capacity i heard, which is why they moved govt. offices in.

By: teferi

teferi — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:31:01 -0800

[this is hideous]

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:51:13 -0800

Usually you'd have heard that a big bank/broker/lawfirm would have been involved by now They're probably waiting for the enormous rent cuts that'll come along when there's no prospective tenants.

By: cpchester

cpchester — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:54:10 -0800

Spiderman is already drooling.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 07:55:09 -0800

exactly my thought, james. And they'd already been doing that pre-9/11 to keep companies downtown.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 08:17:50 -0800

BUT THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM posted by mek at 6:45 AM PST on June 30 [!] Hey, maybe that's the big plan: if the Administration can eliminate freedom, the terrorists won't attack any more!

By: MotherTucker

MotherTucker — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:52:33 -0800

Would any of you, or anyone else for that matter, really want to work in a building that was built on the site of the former World Trade Center? Hey, what if everyone in the country sends in $1. We could buy the land, fill in the hole, and have ourselves a real nice park. Very tired of these ugly, patriotic buildings that seem to scream "fuck you" to the rest of the world.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:09:00 -0800

I wouldn't go out of my way but I wouldn't avoid it either.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:23:45 -0800

Would any of you, or anyone else for that matter, really want to work in a building that was built on the site of the former World Trade Center? Sure. Frankly I think 9/11 ws an anomaly, but even if there is a similar attack in the future the new building at the WTC site is probably the safest place to be.

By: MotherTucker

MotherTucker — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:29:35 -0800

I'm not talking about the "terrorist" factor. The place is a graveyard. Not that I'm afraid of ghosts, but lots and lots of nice people were killed there. The place is a little bit holy, a little bit solemn. It really shouldn't contain office buildings with screaming Xerox machines, etc.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:35:42 -0800

The place is a little bit holy, a little bit solemn. It really shouldn't contain office buildings with screaming Xerox machines, etc. The buildings destroyed there were functioning monuments to commerce. Many/most of those who died there lived lives dedicated to commerce. I think it's also a symbolically valid memorial to build a new functioning monument.

By: MotherTucker

MotherTucker — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:42:28 -0800

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 10:49:57 -0800

Lots of the lives that were lost there worked in the kitchen of Windows on the World, opened mail for the bosses, put out fires and tried to save lives. Maybe it's time to reexamine what we bother to memorialize. We memorialize the lives lost in disasters with solemn non-functional monuments all the time. What you propose wouldn't really be a reexamination, to my mind. When a church gets firebombed isn't the best memorial another church?

By: tristeza

tristeza — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:14:17 -0800

I dunno, I just wish I could change my username to "Pussy Spire"

By: Potsy

Potsy — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:36:36 -0800

Here are some close up pictures of the base of the new design. Looks like a jail.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:54:47 -0800

Damn, that's ugly. They could at least paint it. Sky blue, maybe, so it looks like the towers are floating. Or pink, to calm the terrorists as they approach.

By: designbot

designbot — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:46:10 -0800

Man, the comments in the 'disappeared' thread were way more interesting.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:30:30 -0800

Spooky. Maybe the CIA took it away. Were they figuring out how to best crash a dirigible into it?

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:45:02 -0800

It blows. I hope it's not visible from Park Slope. Who the hell would want to work or be near Ground Zero?