NEW YORK | World Trade Center Memorial & Transit Hub

[JACKinBeantown]

I actually think they chose the best memorial design.

[OptimumPx]

If I had to pick a favorite of the designs that weren't chosen, I'd go with 'Suspending Memory' if only because it's the opposite of the actual Memorial.

Instead of two small pools in a large park, its two small parks in a large pool.

[fimiak]

Back when the north pool was turned on and tested in November, I believe they stated that the south pool would be tested in February. Today I see many people working on the fountain area, maybe 10-15 right now. Does anyone have any info on whether the south fountains are going to be turned on? Perhaps in early March on a warm week?

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lion

Im just gonna through this out here, for a short discussion. As most of us know, there were 7 final designs that were not chosen. Whats your favorite design out of the other 7. Besides saying your favorite of the 7, lets keep it on topic.


Votives in Suspension


Suspending Memory


Lower Waters


Garden of Lights


Passages of Light: Memorial Cloud


Inversion of Light


Dual Memory

The designs had all seemed to be too complex. Very busy looking, to the point that they are overwhelming. I like subtle simplistic nature of the current design. The water falling into the voids is powerful in itself. The plaza should be timeless and not over designed.

Suspending in memory is loud and obtrusive with those colorful structures, and there's no clarity in the footprint of the original buildings at ground level where most of the people will experience the plaza. They clearly designed this from above and not on the ground.

Gardens of lights seems a little strange, and somewhat harsh with all the bright lights against darkness it will create. The light of a memorial plaza should be soft and diffused, no hard contrast.

Passages of light. Absurdly architectural. Let the skyscrapers be the architectural voices, NOT the plaza. Nature and space are timeless. A structure that will date itself after a few decades looks...well...like an outdated memorial in need of renovation. The public's taste in architecture changes, but nature and the simple voids in the plaza are universal design for eternity.

Inversion of light looks good in the renderings, but I'm not convinced when I think of the realities of New York's cold winter climate. I doubt you'll feel that warm glow, rather this would feel like a dark subterranean plaza

Dual memory looks like a convention hall.


A couple of the images are broken so I can't see them, but I'd say even the 2nd place design would actually be a very distant 2nd. What they are building right now is truly spectacular and a genius design.

[winlinmac001]

The current design is the most thoughtful and best design.
Since there will be a lot of open area in the memorial, does anyone know if concerts will ever be held on the memorial plaza just like in the old WTC complex?
It would be cool to hoist a huge Christmas Tree on top of Liberty Park during the Holiday seasons or may be an Ice Skating Rink or something. Summer concerts or other media events would be excellent around where the vents are.
May be NBC/CBS/ABC/PIX should move downtown, lol.

[JSsocal]

Not going to happen for obvious reasons. Remember it is a memorial for nearly 3,000 people.

Not to mention the fact that the plaza is all trees with not a whole lot of 'open space'.

[winlinmac001]

There is a some empty space around 1WTC. I think it is still possible depending on the type of event.

[wong21fr]

Anyone taken a look at that giant beast of a super-column that looks like it's being readied to be placed?

[JACKinBeantown]

Is that what I see in front of the memorial building? The Earthcam camera lens is wet and foggy so it's a little blurry.

[NYguy]

fjh333

[Obey]

Interesting, the memorial has certainly taken shape.

[winlinmac001]

Sweet, looking forward to some ultra-clear glass!
BTW- If the Performing Arts Center is certainly going to be between WTC 1 and WTC 2, then the site will look more complete. =)

[Zensteeldude]

It only seams fair to post this here too.

What all that temporary steel on the east side of the #1 subway box is there to support during it's construction. The "East side truss". It's just a 200 foot long railroad bridge, what makes it special is it's location.

[NYguy]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../?ref=nyregion

When 9/11 Memorial Opens, What About the Tour Buses?




By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
February 28, 2011

Five million visitors a year are expected to pour into Lower Manhattan after the National September 11 Memorial and Museum opens later this year, a powerful symbol of the neighborhood’s newfound vitality in the decade since the attacks.

But the visitors also represent something else: buses. Specifically, too many of them.

Residents in the area around ground zero are wrestling with an increasingly contentious question: how to transport all those people in and out, without clogging up cobblestone residential streets with chartered fume-spewing double-deckers?

With less than seven months until the memorial opens on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the city’s Department of Transportation has not yet completed a plan to handle all the expected bus traffic. And the preliminary ideas are getting the TriBeCa equivalent of a Bronx cheer.
Under one proposal, the city would choose several streets where buses would be allowed to park between pick-ups and drop-offs. The sites would be selected from an area that includes a wide swath of residential strongholds, including Battery Park City, Warren and Murray Streets in TriBeCa, and condo-heavy Greenwich Street. The area under consideration would stretch south to the Battery and east into City Hall Park.

This prospect has not gone over well.

“It’s an air quality concern, it’s a congestion concern: Why should we have all of these tour buses in the neighborhood?” asked Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1, which covers Lower Manhattan. “To present this to the community literally six months before the memorial is opening is troubling at best.”

The complaints prompted a town hall meeting last Wednesday arranged by Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, who pressed officials for more details. “We need to start discussing specific corners and blocks now; we have no time to waste,” Mr. Stringer said.

City transportation planners, who are collaborating with the memorial’s staff, said the bus plan still remained in the conceptual stage. “We haven’t ruled anything out,” said Luis Sanchez, a commissioner at the Transportation Department, adding that the city would present a more concrete proposal in the spring.

To combat congestion and a bus backup, the city is working with the memorial on a ticket-based system that gives time-slot priority to bus companies that agree to drop off passengers off site, possibly in New Jersey or parts of Brooklyn. Visitors could then take public transportation, like ferries or the PATH train, to the memorial.

The plan would encourage mass transit use and, planners say, provide an incentive to visitors to remain in Lower Manhattan for dining and shopping.

But the city cannot require buses to sign up for its ticketing system. And the Transportation Department says remote drop-offs would not be feasible for some disabled visitors or groups of schoolchildren.

The memorial is expected to attract six to eight buses an hour to Lower Manhattan during peak periods. Eventually, an underground garage is planned for the memorial to accommodate the buses. For now, however, existing nearby options, like garages near the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, have been ruled out.

When the city initially floated its plan at a community board meeting this month, it elicited gasps and grinding teeth. Ms. Menin said she had been unaware that the Transportation Department had convened a group to examine options in the area.

“Every time we would raise issue of a plan they would say ‘we’re working on it,’ ” Ms. Menin said. “It’s not productive to have a working group that’s meeting for months and months without input from the affected community.”

Mr. Sanchez of the Transportation Department acknowledged at the meeting that “we know curb space is at a premium in Lower Manhattan.” He pledged a revised proposal within six weeks, which Mr. Stringer said he would be held to.

“The opening of the 9/11 memorial is less than 200 days away,” Mr. Stringer said. “It’s time for the Lower Manhattan community to start asking very pointed questions about traffic and congestion.”

[Patapsco]

Taken March 2, 2011

[JACKinBeantown]

Installing the spine this morning!


Earthcam

[NYguy]

http://www.dnainfo.com/20110304/down...rden-staircase

Battery Park City Residents Fight to Save Beloved Winter Garden Staircase

March 4, 2011
By Julie Shapiro

The push to save the Grand Staircase in the World Financial Center is gaining momentum.

Residents are banding together to stop Brookfield Properties from demolishing the sweeping marble steps, which were rebuilt after 9/11 and have become a community gathering place.

"To take it away, to destroy it, destroys a lot of people who looked at [the stairs] as their rebuilding and their hope," said Justine Cuccia, a Battery Park City resident who recently started a group called Save the Staircase. "It's not going to be the same without it."

Brookfield Properties announced last year that the stairs would have to go to make way for a new underground passageway from the rebuilt World Trade Center into the World Financial Center Winter Garden. The thousands of commuters who flow into Battery Park City each day would hit the solid wall of the back of the stairs unless they are removed, Brookfield said.

"Brookfield is not doing this out of some evil motivation," said Lawrence Graham, a Brookfield vice president who defended the plans at a Community Board 1 meeting this week. "We built [the staircase], and we rebuilt it [after 9/11]. The steps are very emotional to us as well."

At Tuesday night's meeting, Graham tried to dispel some of the rumors that have been cropping up about Brookfield's plans.

Brookfield won't make any money on removing the stairs — it will cost them $25 million and will not yield any additional retail space, Graham said.

Brookfield plans to add more seating to the Winter Garden once the stairs are gone and will continue to offer free arts programming there, he said. Also, the viewing platform at the top of the stairs that overlooks the World Trade Center site will remain in place.

"I don't know what else I can say," Graham told the residents. "As we get different ideas, we will look at them, but we have to move forward."

The Battery Park City Authority, which owns the land beneath the World Financial Center, has not yet approved Brookfield's plans. After hearing from concerned residents, the authority has hired a bevy of consultants, including engineers and traffic experts, to do an independent analysis, President Gayle Horwitz said.

"We're taking our time…to make sure we've turned over every stone," Horwitz said.

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden also may have a say in the removal of the stairs.

Frank Scandiffio, a member of the 32BJ Service Employees International Union, attended Tuesday's meeting to say that the hundreds of union members who work in the World Financial Center oppose the removal of the staircase and would turn out en masse for future protests.

Linda Belfer, chairwoman of CB1's Battery Park City Committee, said that even though nearly 10 years have passed since 9/11, the memories are still fresh.

"A lot of us lost a lot on 9/11," Belfer told Graham, beginning to choke up. "I cling to those things that are still there."

Graham appeared moved and said he, too, had strong memories from 10 years ago. He was downtown on 9/11 and broke his foot the following day while going through the rubble. He then worked to rebuild the staircase for the community, a feat accomplished one year later.

"We didn't come to this proposal lightly," Graham said.

[Obey]

I like were the statue currently is. It's fine there IMO

[Don098]

Originally Posted by JACKinNYC

Installing the spine this morning!


Earthcam

Where? What's that?

[JACKinBeantown]

For lack of knowing what to call it, I refer to the arched supports over the transit concourse the "ribcage" and the "spine." The ribcage is the two symmetrical halves that are mostly covered and the spine is the support in the middle that holds them together. In the screen grab you can see them lowering a piece of the middle section just to the left of the crane. The next piece is standing by to the right of the crane.