The revised plans for “Memory Foundations” at Ground Zero are out. Architect Daniel
Libeskind and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation made them public yesterday.
Here’s a quick news
summary, and here’s a more thorough report (free
registration required). The plans still call for the world’s tallest structure but also for
slimmer office buildings and boxier designs than the angular structures Libeskind at first
envisioned.
Here’s what architecture critic Herbert Muschamp had to
say (free registration required).
He’s underwhelmed. Here’s what Libeskind himself had to
say. He’s happy. Have a look at his complete slide
show and what he calls the signature
images. Here’s the “refined master site
plan” and schematic images of both the original and
revised designs, February 2003 vs. September
2003. Here, too, is a virtual tour of
the train station now being built on the site.
For an official overview recapping the history of the design-selection process, <
EM>go here; also have a look at an
informal photo
archive showing a timeline of developments in and
around Ground Zero, as well as black-and-white illustrations of the “viewing wall” at the
reconstruction site. (The wall images are worth seeing, but the texts are illegible.) Need to refresh
your memory about the memorial itself? Here’s the mission statement, and here are details about
the competition.
Since Ground Zero and the surrounding neighborhood have become major tourist
“attractions,” it’s worth having a look at some nearby points of interest, such
as the National Museum of the American Indian,
the Museum of Chinese in
the Americas and the Fraunces Tavern
Museum, which includes the Long Room, (a restored version
of the 18th century public dining room) where George Washington made his famous farewell to
his officers at the end of the Revolution; The New York City Fire
Museum and The New
York City Police Museum. And let’s
not forget the New Museum of Contemporary
Art.
