details, details... What was it Mies van der Rohe said?

When Cesar Pelli and Associates designed the World Financial Center they created a solid pedestal on the waterfront to visually anchor the World Trade Center's twin towers and integrate them into the lower Manhattan skyline. Today they stand just as handsome for their own sake. Throughout this project I've tried never to lose sight of the fact that whatever goes into this space will be set within the frame that Pelli built and I have tried to be very respectful of that context. Whether viewed from the water looking up between WFC buildings two and three (see photo on next page) or between buildings one and two (illustration for poster) it makes for a well-balanced composition within the skyline. Looking South down the streets of either Greenwich or West Broadway, the tower is also elegantly centered in the field of view (see map below). This North East façade, would be the formal entrance to the tower. Two tall twin entryways would mirror the profile of the twin towers. I also see this entrance flanked with the flags of all the nations who lost citizens in the attacks on September 11th.

The World Trade Center site encompasses an enormous 16 acre lot. To show the practicality of the plan, I wanted to place it in some context. While the memorial structure may be quite large, I chose a scale that should leave enough land to commercially develop to the North and the East sides of the site. While individually these blocks may appear dwarfed by relative comparison to the memorial's single lot, they are not at all small. In combination it is even conceivable that they could provide enough real estate to fully replace all the lost square footage of the combined towers. Whether that is a feasible or desirable goal may be debatable, with the current glut of commercial real estate in downtown Manhattan, but it would be doable.

The green parcel in the North East corner of the site is a grassy park. This would open up the grounds of St. Peters Church to more sunlight and better integrate the church into the surrounding neighborhood. It would also create a visual gateway for the entrance to the memorial.

Obstruction of daylight is always a concern when constructing a super tall structure in New York. With the slender and quickly tapering profile of the tower, the sun will only have the slightest obstruction and any shadow cast will quickly move on as the day passes. In short, the magnificent height of the tower will not leave entire neighborhoods across the city obscured from sunlight for hours at a time.

While I've chosen to concentrate my proposal on the memorial only, I've certainly put thought into how the commercial development may take shape. At some future date maybe I'll update this site with some of those considerations in place. For now I'll only say that it would not do harm to take a cue from the World Financial Center or from Rockefeller Center.

I'll part with this thought: I have no great expectations that this memorial design will ever be built, but I do think that as New Yorkers and as Americans we should all have great expectations about whatever is eventually built. Right now ideas are being steam rolled ahead with a velocity and inertia that is head-spinning. The ideas being produced are at best pragmatically mundane, and at worst wholly ill conceived. As New Yorkers and as Americans we can do better. We should demand better. The former site of the World Trade Center is desperately in need of a big idea. If any criticism can be leveled at this memorial proposal, it cannot be accused of thinking small. I hope that it inspires better ideas or even shames those in charge of this process into thinking bigger themselves.

The biggest idea of all may be an open competition. Let everyone put their best idea forward and let the people vote.