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Buildings
Planners Briefed on WTC Redevelopment
enr.construction.com
- 10/11/02
By Nadine
M. Post
The six teams of architects and planners
selected by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to develop
schemes for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site
and its surroundings were briefed Oct. 10 on more flexible
program guidelines recently developed by LMDC and the Port
Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns the World
Trade Center land.
By year-end, LMDC and the port authority
expect to present at least three plan proposals for public
review. A final land-use plan is expected to be released next
spring.
The more flexible guidelines are a direct response to the
general public's dissatisfaction with earlier planning schemes.
They were considered too heavy on office space and not sensitive
enough to keeping the footprints of the twin towers, destroyed
by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001, as part of the memorial to the
nearly 3,000 victims of the attack.
The original program called for 11 million sq ft of commercial
space, in keeping with the lease agreement with Silverstein
Properties. The new program calls for 6.5 million to 10 million
sq ft of commercial space on the 16-acre site. It reduces
the amount of commercial space overall by 1 million sq ft
and allows up to 3.5 million sq ft to be developed outside
the site proper.
Minimum requirements for some 600,000 sq ft of retail space
and the same for a hotel, to replace what was there, remain
the same. But planners are allowed to expand that amount of
space by 400,000 sq ft, for both the retail and hotel components.
The intention of the relaxed requirements is to keep the
16-acre site more open for a memorial and other civic uses.
Those requirements remain the same. The planners are allowed
to consider residential buildings on and off the site proper.
Other elements in the original program inside and outside
the site remain the same, including a transit hub, a tall
building that would become a skyline icon and a promenade
along West Street, between the WTC site and the World Financial
Center.
Six teams were chosen from among 407 submissions, representing
34 nations. The six teams include a total of 27 different
firms, individual architects and artists who count among their
accomplishments such works as the Getty Center in Los Angeles,
the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Morgan Stanley World Headquarters
in New York, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki,
MoMa Queens in Long Island City, N.Y., and the Yokohama International
Port Terminal in Japan.
In a press release, LMDC President Louis R. Tomson said,
"We are extremely pleased with the quality of these six
teams. They represent the finest architects and planners from
around the world. The public demanded bold and creative visions
for the future of lower Manhattan and this new talent ensures
that we will deliver on our promise."
Each team will receive a $40,000 stipend to work on creating
plans. LMDC and the port authority will continue to work with
consultant teams previously engaged on the project, including
Peterson Littenberg Architecture and Urban Design. They also
will be invited to participate in the design study.
At the end of the study, LMDC and the port authority will
select the most promising ideas from those generated during
the study, and invite those firms to work with LMDC and the
authority's consultants to refine and develop the ideas into
site To pick the teams, New York New Visions, a coalition
of 21 architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture
and design organizations, recommended a group of six panelists
to winnow down the 407 submissions to a group of finalists.
Panelists included Toshiko Mori, Chair of the Dept. of Architecture,
Harvard Design School; Eugenie L. Birch, Professor and Chair
of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University
of Pennsylvania; Richard N. Swett, former U.S. Ambassador
to Denmark and the only licensed architect to serve in the
U.S. Congress in the 20th Century; Kinshasha Holman Conwill,
an arts and management consultant and Director Emeritus of
the Studio Museum of Harlem; Terence Riley, Chief Curator
of the Dept. of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern
Art; Michael Van Valkenburgh, landscape architect and principal
of Van Valkenburgh Associates.
The winning teams are:
1) Studio
Daniel Libeskind, Berlin, Germany, whose previous work includes
the Jewish Museum, Berlin; Imperial War Museum, Manchester,
England; Extension to the Denver Art Museum.
2) Foster
and Partners, London, whose previous work includes the new
German Parliament, Reichstag, Berlin; Commerzbank Headquarters,
Frankfurt, Germany; Swiss Re Headquarters, London; and the
metro system for Bilbao, Spain.
3) Team
of architects Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey,
and Steven Holl. Richard Meier's work includes The Getty Center,
Los Angeles; the Federal Building and United State Courthouse,
Islip, N.Y. Eisenman's work includes the Greater Columbus
Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio; Paramatta Rail Link, Sydney,
Australia. Gwathmey's work includes Morgan Stanley and Co.,
World Headquarters, New York City and the Guggenheim Museum,
Renovation and Addition, New York, City. Holl's work includes
the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland;
the New Residential Community, Schipol, The Netherlands.
4) The
team of UNITED ARCHITECTS includes Reiser Umemoto, New York
City; Foreign Office Architects, London, Greg Lynn FORM, Los
Angles; Imaginary Forces New York and Los Angeles; Kevin Kenon
Architect, New York City; UN Studio, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Previous projects of different members include Lehman Brothers
Headquarters, New York City; Yokohama International Port Terminal,
Yokohama, Japan; Transformation of Kleiburg Housing, Biklmermeet,
The Netherlands.
5) A
team led by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, New York City, with
Field Operations, Philadelphia and New York City; Tom Leader,
Berkeley, Calif.; Michael Maltzan, Los Angeles; Neutelings
Riedijk, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and SANAA, Tokyo, with
artists Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Rita McBride, Jessica Stockholder
and Elyn Zimmerman.
Previous work includes New Pennsylvania Station, New York
City; MoMA QNS, Long Island City, N.Y.; Gifu Kitakata Housing
Stage 1, Stage 2, Motosu, Japan.
6) THINK,
including Shigeru Ban, Tokyo; Frederic Schwartz, Ken Smith,
Rafael Vinoly with ARUP, all New York City; and Buro Happold
Engineers, Bath, U.K., Jorg Schlaich, Stuttgart, Germany;
William Moorish, Charlottesville, Va., and David Rockwell,
New York City, and Janet Marie Smith, Baltimore.
Previous work includes Tokyo International Forum; Curtain
Wall House, Itabashi-Ku, Tokyo; Whitehall Ferry Terminal.
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