February 28, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 26, 1423

NEW YORK, Feb 27: A plan calling for soaring “gardens in the sky” and a submerged memorial was unveiled on Thursday for the World Trade Center site, but wrangling between leaseholders, politicians and Sept 11 victims’ relatives will ultimately decide what fills the space.

New York officials decided on Wednesday on the design by Berlin-based architects Studio Daniel Libeskind to restore the lower Manhattan skyline. The formal announcement was made on Thursday in the rebuilt glass-enclosed Winter Garden across the street from the scarred 6.5-hectare site where 2,800 people were killed.

Architect Daniel Libeskind, a Polish-born immigrant to the US, thanked the people of New York, the United States and the world.

He paid tribute to New Yorkers “for their extraordinary commitment and passion they have shown for the future of this fantastic city.”

The design competition was restarted last September after the public rejected an initial round of six proposals last July as boring an uninspired.

Libeskind’s plan, which also includes cultural sites and a complex of angular, glass buildings, won over a second finalist, a team of New York architects called THINK who proposed a pair of matching latticework structures dominating the skyline like the old towers did.—Reuters