Ground Zero rebuild plan scrapped

Ground Zero rebuild plan scrapped

news.bbc.co.uk

The owner of the World Trade Center has abandoned the timetable for rebuilding work at the site of the 9/11 attacks, saying it was "not realistic".

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director, Christopher Ward, listed over a dozen issues that had slowed work and raised costs.

New dates for the completion of a memorial, skyscrapers and a transit hub are expected to be issued in September.

It is unclear if the centrepiece Freedom Tower, will now be scaled back.

The tower, intended as a replacement for the destroyed Twin Towers, had been scheduled for completion in 2006 and then 2011, but the latest estimate is 2013.

At 1,776ft (541m) it would be the tallest building in the US.

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We are shortly coming upon the seventh anniversary of 9/11 and this news is extremely disheartening. Once again, the latest plan to rebuild the site has been scrapped, with the enormous, gaping wound of Ground Zero nearly untouched.

The Freedom Tower, already redesigned twice, may be scaled back, and timelines for completion are being pushed to 2013 and beyond for all elements of the site.

Frankly, it is a pathetic show, mishandled by the governors (now its already no. 3!) of NY, the Port Authority, the architects, and Silverstein. the project is adrift, without any driving will guiding it forward, and it suffers the fate of orphans.

The vast hole in Lower Manhattan is a symbol of pettiness, infighting, cost-cutting, and blindness, its emptiness a reflection of the troubled legacy of 9/11.

news.bbc.co.uk
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It's all about profitability. So much for a new national treasure.

I knew it! I've been saying all along that they're never going to get around to building it. They can't even fix a pothole within a 6 months window.

To be honest though, I'm a bit happy as that new Freedom Tower is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. I can't stand the new trend in architecture in New York. Destroying beautiful beaux art buildings and replacing them with glass facade monstrosities that seem as though they can't last 25 years.

If I were designing the memorial I would design something quiet. I would rebuild the transit infrastructure but put a simple little park on top. A memorial park with benches, tables and a statue, maybe a hot dog guy. The memorial would represent life, it would stand out in the area as there are nothing but huge buildings. Most of all it would be a place for quiet contemplation of that horrid day. A place family members can come and sit, quietly morning their lost loved ones.

Instead we have planes for a gleaming symbol of our might, chocked full of shopping and starbucks, bright lights, music and full on gaudiness. I personally hope they never build that tower, I hope dirt fills in the hole and trees begin to grow again in the hope of a more peaceful future.

The entire project is lunacy to begin with. For anyone, like myself, who believes the official account of 9/11 including the threat Al Qaida poses to us, why in the blue hell would you want to build that tower? It's like putting up a huge bullseye target for numerous future attack attempts. You couldn't pay me enough to step foot into that tower if it ever gets built.

My guess is that the billion, or whatever, dollars from insurance payments on the fallen towers will get used for some sort of black ops against American citizens.
They will goof around until Silverstein dies, then taxpayers will pay for whatever eventually gets built.

There's no conspiracy behind it not getting built, it's just good old fashioned New York bureaucracy. Just try paying a ticket here, first you have to get there at 5 am to wait on line outside the building, then you wait on line to turn it in, then you wait for your court assignment, then you wait to be called, then you wait online yet again to finally pay the ticket. And god forbid you try to get there later than 9am, you're gonna be waiting on a lot of looooooong lines.

Even worse than that is the Garbage tickets. There is actually a whole organization here in NYC, who is unaffiliated with the Department of Sanitation, who's sole purpose is to write tickets for garbage infractions which in turn pay for the organization to continue to write garbage tickets. It's the only thing they do!!

There's too many cooks in the kitchen, every single group, or committee or organization has it's hand in the pot here. Everyone wants a piece of the budget, everyone wants to be involved so they can then turn around and increase their projected budget for next year.

reply to post by Shadowflux


I agree with you that the Freedom Bunker Tower is nothing to mourn the loss of. It was a jinoisitic dog, especially after SOM and the PA got through with it and made the first 50 feet a concrete bunker. Symbol of freedom, yeah right.

This project was so "important" that it suffocated under the oversight. That, and nobody wants to pony up the dough to build any of it. Museums chased out because they weren't PC enough, designs put out for competition two and three times, and in the end, still a huge hole.

A poverty of ideas, and no will to overcome the inertia. The enduring hole is the real symbol here, not that gawd-awful tower.

What about this: "It set clear deadlines and penalties, including $300,000-a-day payments to Silverstein if the agency didn't deliver land on time. The agency has paid Silverstein over $14 million in penalties after missing those deadlines."

how much money is this guy going to make off of 9-11? Its getting insane.

Originally posted by gottago


A poverty of ideas, and no will to overcome the inertia. The enduring hole is the real symbol here, not that gawd-awful tower.

I couldn't agree more, the hole itself is both a memorial to our darkest day since Pearl Harbor and a memorial to the total ineptitude and complete idiocy of our bureaucratic system. It was such a big even that it need an equally big memorial. It's typical of today's over zealousness, our big dreams coupled with an inability to bring them to fruition.

It's a memorial to a broken system and our modern delusions.