Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 15:42:27 -0500 (EST) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #159:Send Comments,Send Letters,Register! The comment period for the nine design-team plans is in full swing. Note that the http://www.whud.com/index2.php has a poll where none of the above is an option...and has an absolute majority! While that doesn't mean that a majority want tall towers more reminiscent of the old,it's an interesting development. Actual comments that are supposed to be taken into account in the planning process are accepted at the email address lmdc@empire.state.ny.us the web address http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/frm_comments.asp the mail address LMDC Invitation for Public Comment Site Plan Options c/o Empire State Development Corporation P.O. Box 4438,Grand Central Station New York,New York 10017 Fax numbers 212-962-2431 or -2433 However,the Lower Manhattan people's main mailing address is One Liberty Plaza,20th floor New York,New York 10006 And the Port Authority can be reached at 225 Park Avenue South New York,New York 10003 Whether you will also show up at public hearings (more on those later) or are half a world away, SEND COMMENTS that stress that occupied buildings at least as tall as the old (not just ornamentally, but by every measurement:roof compared to roof, occupied space to occupied space) must be given higher priority than any considerations that would obstruct them. The following editorial has just appeared in the NY Daily News: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >From the Daily News Port Authority's downtown scam Two weeks ago, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. presented its options for the future of Ground Zero - a broad range of exciting concepts produced by seven teams of international architects. Their models - nine visionary designs - are on display at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, where thousands of New Yorkers have been viewing the proposals and filling out questionnaires to grade them. What a healthy, open process. And what a monumental waste of time. All along, the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center site, has gone about its own planning in secret. And it remains adamant about maximizing its rental income. Want to guess who will end up with the final say? While the development corporation unveiled its proposals on live television, the PA has done everything possible to keep the work of its architect, Stan Eckstut, under wraps. That was until the Daily News' Paul Shin and Maggie Haberman uncovered the plan. The PA responded by promptly disavowing it. But the disavowal is questionable, particularly because Eckstut's design greatly resembles the half-dozen PA clones that were howled down by the public in July. Each of those six blueprints contained 11 million square feet of commercial office space arranged in an L-shape. Eckstut's plan calls for 10 million square feet of commercial office space arranged in an L-shape. To the PA, this qualifies as a compromise. Eckstut, who is under contract with the agency, was supposed to look only at underground infrastructure and engineering and street layouts. The buildings were to be left up to the competing teams of LMDC architects. Were to be. Eckstut's design has buildings. One suspects the PA will dismiss the LMDC plans outright and selfishly plow ahead with what it wants. If that is not the intention, why does Eckstut's work continue in secret? What goes underground affects what goes above ground. The agency cannot just take one of the nine LMDC designs and plop it on top of whatever Eckstut produces. Both sides have promised to work together, but it's not easy to trust PA promises. The LMDC has the good ideas and no power. The PA has rotten ideas and all the power. And poor, wounded downtown will have to live with the results. ---------- End forwarded message ---------- The editorial opinion is of course not in tune with our desires... write letters to voicers@edit.nydailynews.com to point out the problems here. The Port Authority's desire to control the fate of the site it owns is quite understandable...the Whitehead clique,after all,are just an agency set up to deal with the consequences of 9/11/01 that will NOT have to "live with the results" the way the PA will. There is nothing wrong with 10,or 11,or 15 million square feet of office space on the site for that matter...as long as it is deployed in FEWER,TALLER BUILDINGS than presently contemplated. The "L-shape" is NOT the Port Authority's idea,it is the consequence of megamemorialists' insisitence on leaving both Twin Tower footprints completely empty,and urban-utopians' insistence on slamming Greenwich Street,which they want as a southbound traffic artery,all the way through the site.That only leaves land on the east side of Greenwich (with the footprints on the west) and the northern end of the site for office development...hence the L,which is also used by a number of the design-team plans (see the Meier-Eisenman-etc "picket fence" for an obvious example).If you don't want the L...then don't bother with the Greenwich and both-footprints-untouched constraints! Depending on what you write,you may want to send copies to the Port Authority (the chief operating officer is ebutcher@panynj.gov) and Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn (not sure if stan@eekarchitects.com stiill works for Stanton Eckstut,the directly involved principal). Of course we need to make our opinions heard on every front... every avenue of input into the design process.A smaller number of taller towers is needed compared to the L-pattern,with offset twins (so that views are unobstructed) far more convenient if one need not design around Greenwich Street or view the terrorist decision as to the fate of the footprints as permanently binding. The NY Times has two letters today relating to the designs... one basically pro-innovation,and one explicitly anti-tall-towers. Write to letters@nytimes.com if you like,remembering to give phone number and postal address (not sure if Daily News requires these, the Post does not). Of course,do not forget the public hearings at which voices can be heard in person.Those convenient to them should make every effort to attend. MONDAY,JANUARY 6TH is a hearing held by Community Board 1 (http://cb1.org/ is their website) that at least those who live and work in Lower Manhattan can attend,not sure who else or the exact agenda. WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 8th the Imagine New York people are holding public discussions on the nine plans...some who have registered have already gotten confirmations,so if you haven't please try and make sure that limited space available doesn't get snapped up by anti-rebuilders instead! To repeat recent notes about this: -=-=-=-=-=-=- They will be meeting as a group at 4 PM on January 8th to look through the exhibit at the Winter Garden,then from 6 to 8 PM will meet at 101 Murray Street,at Greenwich Street,on the St. John's University downtown campus.They will engage in "group facilitated dialogue" (LTTC style) about the nine plans. You can register for the discussion without being part of the tour group that day,whether you have seen the exhibit before or seen the plans on the web (URLs in last emails). And they say... "Call (212) 750-3972 or email info@imaginenewyork.org to register now. Space is limited." They also take comments that may be reflected in their report at www.imaginenewyork.org. -=-=-=-=-=-=- Of course,most important are the official public hearings... The venue remains the Schimmel Center at Pace University just a block downhill from Park Row. 5:30-9:00 PM January 13th....comment on the design plans. 5:30-9:00 PM January 14th....comment on the memorial. Registration is not required,but seating is first come, first served.Get on line early,and be aware that they rotate speakers among six segments of the auditorium... rebuilders should sit right,middle,and left of both lower level and balcony! I'll keep in touch as the dates approach,we need successes as potent as we have had in the past or they will say our influence is fading. See you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.