NEW YORK, July 16: New York on Tuesday released six possible plans for the destroyed World Trade Center site and adjacent areas, all of them incorporating a large, green memorial park and restoring the famous skyline, but no building as high as the soaring 110-story twin towers.
The six concepts, presented at a news conference near the 16-acre site where the center stood before the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks, would also include a transportation hub serving the rest of the city and potentially new rail lines to its northern and eastern suburbs. All of the plans included buildings for cultural uses, such as museums.
Each plan included a vision of a memorial park to the more than 2,800 civilians and rescuers who were killed. Each plan also suggested between four and six buildings ranging from 45 stories to 80 stories high, some with a long, needle-like TV antenna on top.
“What we are showing is a conceptual idea that each plan has a position of important architectural statement in the skyline,” said Jack Beyer, founding partner of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, architectural consultants to New York city and state.
Officials said redevelopment of lower Manhattan was a national priority. They emphasized the process was open to public debate, starting with a “town hall” meeting on Saturday expected to draw thousands of people.
OFFICE AND RETAIL: Some planners, civic groups and community groups were disappointed that the principal agencies responsible for the planning, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, held firm to office space and retail space that was on the site.
All the plans include the requirement of restoring 11 million square feet of office space, 600,000 square feet (55,740 square metres) of retail space and 600,000 square feet of space for a hotel.—Reuters































