New York to Unveil New Proposals for Trade Center Site

Nine new designs for the World Trade Center site, created by some of the world’s most prominent architectural firms, will be unveiled today in a locally televised, four-hour presentation.

The proposals, culled from more than 400 designs submitted by an array of international firms, contain blueprints for floating memorials to the victims of last year’s World Trade Center attacks, massive public spaces enclosed in glass and, in several designs, plans to construct the world’s tallest office buildings.

After the designs are presented to the public in the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden building, planning officials will gather feedback and make a final decision on the World Trade Center design by Jan. 31. A separate competition will be held for the design of a memorial later next year.

“What you will see will be very different from the six site plans that were presented last summer,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently told a meeting of New York planners and business officials.

He was referring to proposals unveiled last summer that were roundly criticized by architects and public groups for being unimaginative and too focused on jamming in office space. After those plans were rejected, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is supervising reconstruction of the area, called for new proposals. This time, firms were invited to be more flexible and creative in their designs, including how much office space should fill the area, and the physical dimensions of a memorial.

The finalists are Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which recently unveiled new design plans for World Trade Center 7, an adjacent building; Richard Meier & Partners, which designed the Getty Center in Los Angeles; Studio Daniel Libeskind in Germany, known for its design of the Jewish Museum in Berlin; United Architects, a collaborative venture among several firms, including Greg Lynn of Los Angeles; Foster and Partners in England; Think, a team that includes New York architects Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz; and Peterson Littenberg, another New York firm. Although seven firms made the final cut, Think has submitted three proposals. “Some of these new designs make eloquent statements about what happened on 9/11, some speak of hope, [and] some boldly restore the skyline in ways that say, in no uncertain terms, this is New York, and the terrorists didn’t win,” the mayor added. “Some do all three.”

Although planning officials will be guided by the Jan. 31 decision, the actual layout of the 16-acre site will not be known for some time, and construction is not expected to be completed until 2008, redevelopment officials have said.

The first task will be to construct a new transportation network on the site, repairing badly damaged subway routes and commuter rail networks, Bloomberg said.

Some tantalizing details have leaked out, such as the proposal for office buildings higher than Malaysia’s 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, currently the world’s tallest buildings. By contrast, Meier has said that buildings cover only one-fourth of the site in his plan, which includes a floating “memorial plaza” on the Hudson River, as well as a park with 2,800 lights, one commemorating each victim.

Matthew Higgins, a spokesman for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said the four-hour unveiling will be “a completely unique experience” that invites the public to physically interact with models of the proposals. Lengthy public hearings are planned in the coming weeks. But some organizations have complained that there will be less than two months from the unveiling to the final decision. Organizations representing families of victims and survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks have criticized planners for scheduling the event during the holiday season.

The nine proposals will be on display at the Winter Garden from Dec. 20 through the end of January and online this afternoon at www.renewNYC.com.