For once, listen to The Donald.
Standing in the lobby of his Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the developer turned TV star on Wednesday presented a model of his own envisioned towers, reflecting the original shape of the skyscrapers that fell Sept. 11, 2001.
The towers he advocates would be 111 stories tall — one floor taller than the lost towers.
Plans for the site, to be dominated by a 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, have been stalled lately because of security concerns, though Gov. George Pataki assured New Yorkers last week that the project was not losing momentum.
“Failure to rebuild is not an option,” the Republican governor said in a speech in downtown Manhattan.
But Trump had little use for the futuristic, angular Freedom Tower mode.
The plan “looks like a junkyard, a series of broken-down angles that don’t match each other. And we have to live with this for hundreds of years?” he said. “It is the worst pile of crap architecture I’ve ever seen in my life.”
While beautiful in and of itself and obviously quite an architectural challenge, the Freedom Tower has some important problems. I have to side with Trump here — the tower, as currently conceived, would be a disturbance on the NYC skyline. By that, I think it would be beyond Alia on the abomination scale (reference pointed specifically at Phil — back at ya, pal).
However, Trump said he was leaving it up to developer Larry Silverstein, who owns the lease on the World Trade Center site, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land, to execute the design first introduced last year by engineer Ken Gardner.
“I only have the power of persuasion,” Trump said. “It’s a very simple power, but sometimes it can be very strong.”
Speaking for Silverstein, Howard Rubenstein said Trump was a friend, but “Silverstein’s only concern right now is designing a safe and spectacular Freedom Tower in keeping with the well-established master plan for the site.”
All well understood and reasonable. Is this really The Donald?
Though it would be taller than the twin towers, the Freedom Tower would have much of its top one-third given over to airy latticework and a spire emitting light into the night. Only around 70 floors would be usable office space.
Trump described the existing design as “essentially a skeleton” at the top. “If we rebuild the World Trade Center in the form of a skeleton, the terrorists win.”
Agreed in general but, man, is the “if blah-blah then the terrorists win” argument ever going to end? Dennis Miller put forth a solid counter to this argument back in his stand-up days in the ’80s. Speaking of terrorists, he spoke in favor of an eye for an eye. To the “that means the terrorists have won” argument, he agreed but pointed out, in his own distinct delivery, that there would be less of them at the trophy ceremony. I’m pretty cool with that result.
Trump also left room for an alternative to his plan, if tenants can’t be found for the new towers. “If for some reason, it can’t be built, because there is a possibility that people do not want to be in any of the buildings on the site, then what we should do is … build a great memorial park,” he said.
Man, what a depressing park that would be.
Confederate Yankee feels the way I do about rebuilding the towers, and argues it much more eloquently than I have bothered to do.
Only one profile deserves to occupy the hallowed ground in lower Manhattan. No substitute, no matter how impressive, could ever be appropriate for all that was won and lost that day.
Go give it a read in full.