World Trade Center proposals review: Richard Meier et al.

Posted by | December 21, 2002 | architecture | No Comments

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Summary: Simplistic, rectilinear shapes created from two groups of three towers at right angles to each other and linked by bridges. In addition to the new towers, there is a proposal for landscaped piers representing shadows form the original towers. Multiple memorials are constructed at ground level and in the new buildings.

Plus: The pier proposal is very simple and elegant. Being the same size as the original towers they would allow their scale to be grasped.

Minus:
The towers are simple without the elegant simplicity of the originals that made them so iconic. The ‘multiple memorials’ idea is pointless. The cantilevered gardens/balconies would be prohibitively expensive, would disappear from the working drawings and would therefore change the design altogether.