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Rebuilding for the Future While Remembering the Fallen

Artist's rendering: the 1776 foot high Freedom Tower will rise above the World Trade Center Memorial, "Reflecting Absence." (© AP/WWP/LMDC)

By Eric Green and David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writers

Even while the pulverized wreckage of the World Trade Center smoldered in the days and weeks following the savage terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans looked at the gaping wound in the New York City skyline and looked to the future.

Until that morning, the 16-acre Twin Towers site had been among the most expensive and productive real estate on earth. Afterward the mass of twisted steel and smoking rubble was a cemetery --- the mortal remains of over three-quarters of the 2,749 people killed there have not yet been recovered, and likely will not be.

Soon enough, the answer came: Rebuild, yes; but the annihilation suffered that day should never be forgotten. The needs of commerce must be acknowledged: New York is, above all, the commercial heart and soul of America. But the thousands of human lives snuffed out by the horrific actions of a few zealots had consecrated the site. Their souls deserved a memorial as testimony to their value, especially since their ashes had already intermingled with the earth at Ground Zero.

Now, three years after that devastating day, construction is under way on what will be the world's tallest building. At the heart of the design is the Freedom Tower, intended to fill part of the emotional and physical crater in New York's lower Manhattan neighborhood. When completed in 2008 or 2009, the Freedom Tower will rise to a height of 1,776 feet. That number -- not by accident -- symbolizes the year that 13 little colonies hugging the Atlantic coast of the North American continent declared that they "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

How Americans came to this day is itself a testimony to both the grieving and healing process through which the survivors have passed. First, engineers, firefighters and construction workers had to clear away the thousands of tons of rubble. They worked stoically, heroically, and reverently at their tasks. Even while that work was going forward, the issue of what should fill the empty space came to the fore.

To answer the question, New York Governor George Pataki and then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani created the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) as a joint state-city entity to help plan and coordinate the rebuilding and renewal of lower Manhattan. LMDC was charged with seeing that Lower Manhattan recovered from the attacks and emerged better than before.

Other efforts also coalesced among dozens of civic groups, including The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, and Imagine New York. The latter group held hundreds of public workshops and gathered over 19,000 ideas, which ultimately were captured in 49 "vision statements" concerning the future of the site.

At the center of the LMDC's effort was the creation of a permanent memorial at the World Trade Center site. In April 2003, the corporation launched a design competition, inviting competition from around the world.

A conscious effort was made to involve perspectives of the public, including families of the 9/11 victims. More than 5,000 individuals, representing six continents, 63 nations and 49 American states, submitted design proposals. For over four months, the 13-member jury reviewed every submission. On November 19, 2003, the LMDC announced eight finalists at a public exhibition at the World Financial Center Winter Garden.

On January 6, 2004, the jury announced the winning memorial design, "Reflecting Absence," by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker. It features two open quadrangles with recessed pools that will mark the "footprints" of the Twin Towers. Surrounded by a park with trees, the memorial will, in the designers' words, "resonate with the feelings of loss and absence" caused by the attacks. Ramps will lead down from the pools to the memorial itself, where viewers can see another, larger pool "flowing away into an abyss," bordered with the names of all of the victims.

Also on site, the foundations of the World Trade Center and part of the "slurry wall" constructed to keep the Hudson River out of the site will be visible. Along a passageway there will be an alcove, with a small chamber across from it, to permit visitors to light a candle or leave a remembrance. There will also be an interpretive center below the ground, where visitors can see artifacts from the buildings and some personal effects of the victims. The designers envision exhibition areas, lecture halls and a research library in this center as well.

Fittingly, the design also includes a very private room for unidentified human remains to be kept in a large stone vessel, with the ceiling above it open to the sky. The designers contemplate family members using the room as "a personal space for remembrance."

Soaring above the solemn memorial will be the Freedom Tower. Relatives of some of the victims attended the July 4, 2004, groundbreaking ceremony for the Freedom Tower, where a granite cornerstone was laid. The cornerstone, quarried from New York State's Adirondack Mountains, is inscribed: "To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and as a tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom."

Daniel Libeskind, who created the rebuilding plan, told reporters that the Freedom Tower is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit Libeskind said Freedom Tower will "inspire New York, America, and the entire world with the ideals of liberty and democracy."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the groundbreaking was a historic day for the United States.

"We remember that the liberties, which are the bedrock of our nation, can never be shaken by violence or hate. By laying this magnificent cornerstone of hope, we are sending a message to the people around the world that freedom will always prevail," said Bloomberg.

Family member John Foy, whose mother-in-law was killed in the attack, said, "It's a new beginning. We all need to move on and rise above this."

Governor Pataki added that the 20 tons of Adirondack granite serving as the foundation for the Freedom Tower represent "the bedrock of a new symbol of American strength and confidence. Today, we lay the cornerstone for a new symbol of this city and this country and of our resolve in the face of terror."

The Freedom Tower will be slender in shape, tapering from the base to the top and topped by a spire designed to evoke the nearby Statue of Liberty, the monument that greets those entering New York Harbor by sea. The new skyscraper will surpass what is currently regarded as the highest building in the world, Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The Taipei building measures 1,667 feet in height.

The Freedom Tower has been designed to be not only the tallest, but also the safest building, in the world. The tower will feature state-of-the-art safety systems, such as biological and chemical air filters, concrete-encased elevators and stairs -- built extra wide -- and extra security exits

Only the first 72 floors of the building will be occupied with retail and office space. Atop those floors will be the wind turbines, broadcast antennas, and the soaring spire. Reaching upward into the sky, and visible from many miles away, the spire will symbolize freedom, remembrance, honor and the renewal of the human spirit.