Quote:
Originally Posted by aquablue
I bet a good amount that the diamonds will be simplified or removed outright, it's the way design is done today, superfluous stuff is often cut in the name of all mighty profits
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Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?
The diamonds pointing downward were intended, not just to be decorative, but to
mean something — their downward tilt was a homage to hallowed ground, bowing before it. As an added benefit, they were stunning in their own right, and echoed the original Libeskind master plan, which displayed stand-in buildings with tops pointing down to the footprints of the old twins.
For that matter, Foster’s
original master plan for the site, which
should have been chosen, also
meant something, in addition to be absolutely stunning in its own right, without any historical allusion. But the “kissing towers” allusion was to rebuild the twins, taller and better, but
conjoined — the twins bonded together more tightly than before, in defiance and repudiation of those who committed the deranged, dastardly act of mass murder on 9/11.
Richard Meier’s site plan, sadly brushed aside, also
meant something — the twins replaced by a sentinel-like guard of spare, interlocking towers, which would have been, to my knowledge, architecturally unique. They would have been guardians standing like an honor guard of soldiers over hallowed ground, and visually they were stunning.
Libeskind’s off-center spire
meant something — an allusion to the lifted torch of the Statue of Liberty. Instead, we got a bland corporate drone tower with a gigantic toothpick stuck on top. Even the sculptural radome, which would have redeemed this thing a bit, though still without any historical allusion, was scrapped to save the wealthy Durst a few bloody bucks!
2 World Trade is the last chance to build a structure that
means something to this specific site, an architectural semiotics for hallowed ground. Of course, I’m sure the diamonds will be scrapped and another bland, soulless tower will be erected, a sad but somehow fitting coda to a quartet of mediocrity. Profit über alles!