Developer pops up with a plan for World Trade Center site

Los Angeles Times

The developer who holds the lease to the World Trade Center property is completing the first comprehensive master plan for the 16-acre site, which sources say would consist of a number of office buildings clustered around a single soaring tower, a memorial park and two cultural venues.

Designed by David Childs of Skidmore Owings &Merrill, one of New York’s most established firms, the plan will be presented by developer Larry Silverstein to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. — the state agency charged with overseeing reconstruction of the site — possibly in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the team has approached the New York City Opera and the Guggenheim Museum about occupying new arts venues that would be created as part of the development.

The proposal promises to fuel an already contentious debate about what should be built at the site. At issue is the fast pace at which the development plans have proceeded, which has offended some victims’ families, who consider the site a mass grave. Of equal importance is how to balance the economic interests of the real estate community with the desire to create a public memorial.

Childs’ plan seeks to address at least some of those concerns by combining a large-scale commercial office development with a variety of public components.

"The World Trade Center was a very forbidding place. It was isolated from the city," Childs said in an interview. "This is an opportunity to reknit the project into the city, to reactivate the great public spaces of the street. It should feel open to everyone, from the homeless to the wealthy CEO of a giant company. And I think that is a tremendously important quality to whatever happens here."

In any case, the plan still faces significant hurdles. Silverstein has yet to receive insurance money for the destruction of the twin towers Sept. 11, which could range from $3.6 billion to $7.2 billion. And he is certain to encounter stiff resistance from groups representing the victims’ families, who feel the first task should be to determine how best to memorialize those who died in the terrorist attacks.

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