More on Ground Zero

There is one passage in Ada Louise Huxtable‘s bravura performance in today’s WSJ (which I highly praised yesterday) that particularly arrested me, because it comes very close to mentioning an unmentionable truth:
An earlier skyline, dominated by earlier icons, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, had a richness and variety not yet diminished by the brutal breaking of scale and loss of architectural detail when the Port Authority built not one, but two of the tallest buildings in the world….The Twin Towers could be built only by using the authority’s independent powers to override all of New York’s height, building and zoning codes and restrictions. The same excessive bulk is being reproduced today.
Her words imply what I have always believed. It borders on heresy to say that it might, in fact, be better NOT to replace what the terrorists so wantonly destroyed. The initial impulse is to show resilience by coming back even bigger and, hopefully, better than ever.
But I agree with Ada Louise’s suggestion that Manhattan would both look better and be better off without those new hulking goliaths—buildings that may one day reproach us as half-empty monuments to our shortsighted obstinacy. How much better to reinvent Ground Zero as a peaceful oasis for memory, culture, contemplation and community.
It’ll never happen.