July 06, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:So Pataki has promised not
So Pataki has promised not to rebuild anything on the WTC site.
And Sheldon Silver is dragging his feet.
And I know the burning question you all have is: what does Jane think?
Well, I think there are basically three ways we can go.
1) Keep the footprint of the buildings as a memorial
2) Build 'em back, higher
3) Build regular buildings here.
I'm against #3. Perhaps I'm too close to it, but I don't think that 9/11 was a footnote to history; I think it was a national tragedy. And you wouldn't build a condo/golf course development on the Gettysburg battlefield no matter how pretty the view was, or how nicely it would spur development in the surrounding area.
I'm also against #2, for practical reasons. There's a reason that after the 70's, all the "World's highest buildings" are built by countries looking to bolster national pride, instead of developers trying to make a buck. Buildings that tall have numerous issues, the biggest of which is elevators; it's not really efficient to build a building much taller than 55 stories, because after that height, the elevator requirements either start to crowd out office space, or make it very slow to get to the top. While it does have a certain ". . . and the horse you rode in on" charm that appeals to me, ultimately, we'd be building an expensive white element just to flip our enemies the bird. That's not the American Way. The American Way is to do things right and laugh ourselves rich.
So I favor #1. Now, many of you will tell me that we can't afford it, but I'm not so sure. The WTC isn't good building space; rebuilding it would be very expensive. I think we could develop other areas around it instead to replace the space. And not only could, but should.
Because I think the only way we can really remember the WTC is so see how very vast were the buildings that fell. You can't imagine it unless you are here, looking at the hole. . . even people who saw it before it fell can't know, because staring at a concrete wall is nowhere near as powerful as staring at its absence. I want our grandchildren to be able to come here and see, more powerfully than words could ever convey, the enormity of the towers that fell. Nothing that large will probably ever be built in this country again. We shouldn't erase its memory.
Posted by Jane Galt at July 6, 2002 10:43 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links