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“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
This illustration from the LMDC home page — with the TTA image inserted for contrast — clearly shows how unworthy the current plan is. It would be like a flashing neon sign calling attention to a feeble recovery. It may impress at street level, but from across the river, across the ocean, or across the years there is no comparison. Unless one is standing too close, it just doesn’t measure up.
www.WTC2011.com — BETTER IN EVERY WAY
A site is being developed at WTC2011.com that makes it clear that we can still choose to build a World Trade Center that connects us to the past and improves upon what we lost — instead of the currently planned downgrade. The WTC2011 option is better in every way and can put us ahead of the existing schedule – including a memorial that eclipses the current morbid plan.
Our purpose in linking to WTC2011.com is to fire peoples’ imaginations — because that, after all, was what the Twin Towers were all about. They were telling us that life is big, we are big, and the sky’s the limit. Now, next to no one is getting excited, because there is nothing to get excited about.
What do we want to see when we drive, fly, sail into New York: inspiring new Twin Towers or something that is merely the byproduct of commercial interests and elitist tastes? This new site is going to make it easy for official New York to wake up to the reality that not only is it the natural thing to do, and, as everyone knows, the popular thing to do — but, it is also the smart thing to do and the fiscally sound thing to do — so officials can stop covering their “tracks” and get on with it.
The Twin Towers Alliance has not wanted to endorse one design over another, because nothing but the best is good enough for the World Trade Center. But we are convinced that the only way to displace the current development is with something better, not something theoretical. What matters now is that it will clearly present every fair-minded official with the challenge to explain why they would prefer the disconnect of the current proposal to a fully re-engineered plan that restores and improves on the WTC that was stolen from us.
The evident attempt by the LMDC to undermine that possibility with a stealth campaign is shameful. Not only do people across the country and around the world think that the “Freedom Tower” is the first of two, and that we are just taking a very long time to rebuild the Twin Towers, but it is common to actually hear New Yorkers say the same thing! An example of the deception was the use of the Towers in the logos of anti-Towers efforts. Even at Ground Zero, the official image of the Twin Towers wrapped in the flag was still plastered on poles and equipment at the end of 2007, as a subliminal suggesting continuity — clearly a false impression…
Someday we will get to the bottom of what took place. Why has it been up to private citizens to work so hard every step of the way to bring the Twin Towers back to life? It makes no sense. Why did Gov. Pataki and his LMDC relegate “The Restoration Alternative” to some sort of No Man’s Land? What was behind the arbitrary rules that effectively barred new Twin Towers from their phony competition — in spite of what the majority clearly wanted? Who was pulling George Pataki’s strings?
The people are entitled to answers. Beyond the dullness and inertia of the status quo was a deliberate effort to mislead the public about what was happening at Ground Zero. Who was behind that and why? Time will tell, but the pressing need now is to overcome all the machinations and spin by simply showing how much better we still can do, if we summon the will. When people see how poorly the current proposal compares to the Twin Towers II plan in every way, it will be impossible to sustain.
That is why the Twin Towers Alliance is solidly behind the Twin Towers II plan, which has elements of greatness. The site plan is breathtaking and thought-provoking for anyone with an open mind. It clearly is an improvement on what passes for a WTC master site plan today. And the uplifting way it handles the memorial is favored by many of the people who lost loved ones on 9/11 and bitterly object to the current, dispiriting design.
Much of the groundwork that has been done at the site had to be done anyway so it would be misleading to suggest that it would be wasted under the Twin Towers II plan. When the Towers went down steelworkers offered to work for free to put them back up, entrepreneurs wanted to invest in the project, and visionaries offered to rent the top floors of new towers. Much support will quickly appear when we switch tracks and we will actually make it to our destination much more quickly than is now planned because the project will take on a life of its own.
If officials had only had some respect for the people’s common sense, we wouldn’t have wasted six years — only to find ourselves forced to pour more time and taxpayer money into shuffling state and federal workers around to make up for the private sector’s lack of interest in the ironically-named “Freedom Tower”. But, so far the General Services Administration has gone no further in converting its non-binding contract into a secured commitment. No doubt the imprudence of promising to lease AAA space with taxpayer funds in a building that is not popular with the people is being resisted behind the scenes.
Until the specifics at WTC2011.com are filled out, there are detailed site comparisons and informative FAQs on the Twin Towers II plan at the triroc.com/wtc site.
There have been a number of very promising efforts made over the years to imagine new Twin Towers. What sets Twin Towers II apart is the dedication that Kenneth Gardner has shown by persevering in spite of the odds and the degree of the planning. The sacrifice and faith required to continue to develop and improve upon something that prevailing “wisdom” thinks is going nowhere deserves a great deal of credit.
When all is said and done, as Keith Edwards, the creator of another very imaginative Twin Towers plan noted: “We Cannot Fix the Big Apple With a Lemon.” Now, ain’t that the truth?
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, AND WHY…
People who only know what they read in the papers about the “rebuilding” process are often mystified at how we got off on the wrong track at The World Trade Center site. For years a very clear and concise explanation was offered on restorewtc.com. The Twin Towers Alliance plans to host that site within our site ande is pleased that it will become part of the permanent record asap.
restorewtc.com
“The city so nice they named it twice” needs its Twin Towers back!
Even Twin Freedom Towers would be better than the current anti-WTC.
