Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:24:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: WTC Rebuilding #379:Forbes Endorses Towers,Forger Strikes ME,
    Libeskind Whines in Times


In the July 4th issue of FORBES Magazine,the final section
of "Fact and Comment" by Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes is
an endorsement of Donald Trump's push for new Twin Towers,
and affirmation that many people WILL want to work there.

We need POSITIVE reaction to this...email readers@forbes.com
to agree that a real new WTC is just what we need and you'd
work there!

Some time this morning,someone FORGED my "signature",
with an out-of-date mailing address,a variant of my email
address I never circulate,and a trite comment I'd never write,
on the Twin Towers 2 online petition.(linked at the petitions
page of http://www.put.com/wtc as "Brendan P. Byrne's petition")

While I certainly support the goals outlined,and have considered
signing in person at Trump Tower,I did NOT sign the online petition
and don't know who put my name on it (Brendan doesn't condone this
either).If it happened to me,who else might it happen to?

We need honest signatures and only honest signatures,people...
any form of chicanery reflects badly on the entire movement.
Even signing the name of someone else who agrees,without that
person's permission,is not acceptable.

Daniel Libeskind has the below in today's NY Times opinion pages;
of course ignoring the way that true restoration of the WTC was
never allowed "on the ballot",and the fact that his plan finished
LAST in the official public poll of the process he praises.

Please write under-150-word criticisms calling for giant new Towers
and the abandonment of his site plan to letters@nytimes.com...as
ever,they demand your postal address and phone number though these
never see print.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:00:43 -0700
Subject: LIBESKIND IN THE TIMES

= = = = = =
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/opinion/23libeskind.html?th&emc=th

By DANIEL LIBESKIND
Published: June 23, 2005
NY TIMESSOMETIMES it seems that the most important quality an architect can
possess is optimism. For example, it took 12 years for the Jewish Museum I
designed in Berlin to finally open to the public. A few hours later it had
to close. The date: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. That jarring confluence of
events not only predated but also presaged my role in rebuilding ground
zero. And the memories of what we went through in Berlin give me confidence
that we will succeed in New York as well.

When I won the museum competition, Berliners were divided between those who
felt my design would represent the new Germany and others who found it too
prominent and unsuitable. Many said the building would never be built. Once
it was built, the naysayers said it would never be occupied. When the
exhibitions were installed, they said no one would come. Since it re-opened
the day after 9/11, it has become one of the most visited museums in Europe.

We persevered through seven governments, six name changes, five culture
ministers, four museum directors, three mayors, two sides of a wall and one
unification - with zero regrets. I was called naïve, foolishly optimistic
and worse. Today, of course, the same charges echo in New York. Critics
stress that it has been nearly four years since the attacks and claim that
little progress has been made. They are wrong.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, chaos gave way to grief, which eventually
turned into a burning determination to do the right thing - for the victims,
the families, the city, the nation. Yet what was the right thing? Rebuild
the twin towers? Preserve the 16 acres as an empty field of memory? The city
and state rightly decided that the public should help answer these
questions. A first series of designs was presented and rejected. A second
planning effort, international in reach and wide-ranging in scope, led to a
spectacular display of finalists at the rebuilt Winter Garden. I was
fortunate enough to be selected as the winner.

It is worth remembering that it was only two years ago that the master plan
contract was signed. The general agreement for the creation of land parcels
and underground structures was accepted just 20 months ago. Measured against
any reasonable standard, this project has come a long way in a very short
time. (Recall that after the Oklahoma City bombing it took five years to
complete the memorial and six years to finish the museum.)

Perhaps a detailed explanation of the status of the major facets of the
project, and a reminder of what we will have in the end, will help allay New
Yorkers' famous impatience.

The 9/11 memorial, designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, set within a
tree-filled park, will abut the old towers' exposed foundation, or slurry
wall, which descends 75 feet down to bedrock. It will have two sunken pools
in the footprints of the towers, 35 feet below the ground, with cascading
waterfalls. A full-scale mock-up of the waterfalls is being tested now;
construction of the memorial will begin next spring and it should be
completed in September 2009.

The Freedom Tower - which will reach 1,776 feet into the sky - is being
redesigned to make it the safest tower in the world. Yes, work has been
delayed by security concerns, but we may make up for this with an expedited
construction schedule and a simpler, more slender design. The new plans will
be made public in a matter of weeks.

Other aspects of the effort are proceeding apace. Groundbreaking for
Santiago Calatrava's spectacular transportation center is set for late
summer; work should be completed in 2009. The International Freedom Center
and International Drawing Center will break ground on their shared cultural
center in 2007; it too should open in 2009. And we will soon see Frank
Gehry's design for the performing arts center, which should be completed in
about three years.

At the center of all this will be the Wedge of Light Plaza, a public space
the size of the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Its shape was inspired by the
configuration of sunlight at the Trade Center at the times on that terrible
morning when the first plane struck and when the second tower fell.

The master plan is not a straitjacket. For example, if a decision were made
to convert some towers to residential instead of commercial use, the plan
could accommodate that decision without compromising integrity or
sacrificing light and air.

Some things, however, are inviolable. The Freedom Tower must remain the
beacon around which the others cluster. It must stand 1,776 feet tall, and
it should beckon toward the Hudson River. These are not simply hallmarks of
a plastic keychain souvenir. Symbols matter - whether the slurry wall, the
Wedge of Light Plaza or the luminous Freedom Tower itself. The quality of
what we achieve at ground zero will, after all, define the New York skyline
and give shape to our aspirations and dreams.

When I hear the naysayers carping about the supposed lack of progress, I
like to think of a phrase written by George Washington in a letter during
the bleak early days of the Revolutionary War: "Perseverance and spirit have
done wonders in all ages."

The record of achievement in America then and now affirms my optimism and
sustains my resolve.

Daniel Libeskind is the master planner of the World Trade Center site.


---------- Forwarded message ----------

In recent news...

Monday's demonstration by the memorialists got hundreds...or "about a
hundred"...attendees,depending on the report;the Daily News said:
http://www.nydailynews.com/06-21-2005/news/story/320903p-274422c.html
they wrote an editorial:
http://www.nydailynews.com/06-21-2005/news/story/320799p-274350c.html
The Post had an editorial on the memorial on June 20 (48627.htm)
and printed letters June 21 (48681.htm) while Councilman Gerson weighed
in on the issue (48870.htm) but they remain a registration-required site.

Silverstein's people lofted a balloon over the WTC site to take camera
shots of the views from future buildings...it is said to have gone up
1400 feet though none of the buildings are set to be that tall unless
they dump the Libescheme!

There are two new people on the email list this time...
of course anyone can be removed on request...former Cantor
Fitzgerald 104th floor worker Thomas Keenan,whose son is already
a list member,wrote asking to be added,and told me of his day on
September 11th 2001,while Jeffrey Kantor,who I wrote to on an
unrelated subject but included my tagline below,made yet another
of the "I thought I was the only one" responses showing the
divide-and-conquer tactics of anti-Towers officialdom.

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.