NEW YORK (voa) – Residents of New York City are set to meet at a public hearing later Monday to discuss nine new design proposals for the World Trade Center site.
The designs from some of the most influential figures in contemporary architecture aim to reclaim the city’s skyline and honor the memory of those who died during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Several of the proposals call for a structure taller than the world’s highest building, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia at 450 meters. The World Trade Center towers were the world’s tallest buildings when they were first constructed.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which commissioned the designs, are due to choose one plan by the end of February.
The nine designs cover a wide variety of styles featuring floating memorials, sunken gardens and promenades. Some propose a single tower to replace the destroyed buildings of the complex, while other designs call for five buildings or more on the site.
All the designs reserve space for a permanent memorial to the victims of the twin towers’ collapse.
New York officials hope the new designs will meet with greater approval than six designs released earlier this year, which were criticized as dull and uninspiring.
An inspired plan will rededicate our City to the ideals of diversity, democracy, and optimism that have made New York the World’s Center for the exchange not only of goods and services, but also of creativity and culture.
Sky Park
A ten block, 16-acre rooftop Public Park is a living memorial that floats above the familiar scale of the New York City street grid. Connecting to the Grand Promenade along West Street and beginning at street level across from St. Paul’s Chapel, the Park gradually climbs to ten stories and culminates in a cantilevered three-acre lawn with sweeping views of the Hudson River and the New York Harbor.
The Memorial location is defined by the open squares of the footprints of the WTC Towers and includes the space above, below and surrounding them.
The Park includes groves of trees, an amphitheater, cafes, an ice-skating rink, fountains, community gardens and multiple sites for additional Memorials. Ramps, pedestrian bridges (including one to the Winter Garden), escalators, and a “vertical pocket park” elevator provide convenient connections within the Park and to the street.
Located below the Park, in typical city blocks are cultural facilities (adjacent to the footprints), street level retail (in addition to retail on the concourse level), a Transportation Center, a hotel/convention center, and office space.
On the Park’s perimeter, three large office towers (including the world’s tallest) complete the program in subsequent phases. The towers are designed as independent buildings and rise high above the Park to redefine the skyline of the City.
The Great Room
The Great Room is a vast, covered Public Plaza connecting all the elements of the program under an enormous free-span glass ceiling. A soaring living memorial, encompassing 13 acres, serves as the Gateway to the City and as the Great Hall of the Transportation Center-an unprecedented place for arrival, celebration, memory, and civic events.
Two glass cylinders protect the footprints of the WTC Towers as they surround and articulate the Memorial site and the entrance to a 9/11 Interpretative Museum.
Utilizing the large area of the roof and the space that it covers, sustainable systems conserve energy and collect rainwater to reduce consumption and produce solar energy. Stacking shutters regulate the natural ventilation of the space providing the opportunity to control ambient temperature.
Phased mixed-use buildings define the perimeter and support the roof. The tallest structure in the world (2,100 ft), including offices, hotel and a transmission tower, completes the program, is a counterpoint to the Great Room, and rede?nes the skyline of the City.
Towers of Culture
The World Cultural Center, The World Trade Center is reborn as the World Cultural Center. Built above and around the footprints of the World Trade Center towers, but without touching them, two open latticework structures create a “site” for development of the Towers of Culture.
Within these soaring structures, distinctive buildings designed by different architects are phased to complete a program of innovative cultural facilities: the Memorial (from the footprints of the original towers to the top of the highest platform in the world), the 9/11 Interpretative Museum, a Performing Arts Center, an International Conference Center, an open Amphitheater, viewing platforms and public facilities for education Arts and Sciences reconstruct the skyline of the City with the icons of the Public Realm. The Towers emerge from large glass reflecting pools that bring natural light to the retail and transit concourse. Two large-scale turbines harvest wind to power the elevators of the Center that will serve 8.5 million visitors a year.
The Transportation Center occupies the memorable space between the towers. Retail is located at both the concourse and street levels to better serve the community. Eight independent mid-rise office buildings and a hotel on the perimeter of the site fulfill the total program according to market demand.
