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New Designs For Trade Center Site Unveiled
Aired December 18, 2002 - 13:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Rising from the ruins. Getting our first look at new proposals for rebuilding Ground Zero. After New Yorkers rejected the first ideas, designers went back to the drawing board. Today there are seven new ideas for the World Trade Center site.
For that, we go to CNN's Jason Carroll in New York. He has been on it from the very beginning -- Hi, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good afternoon to you, Kyra. The presentation has ended, but if you take a look behind me, you can see that there are still dozens of journalists from all over the world that are still trying to reach out to some of the architects from all over the world who presented their ideas.
At the end of the day, what could we end up with here in New York city? We could end up with the largest -- the tallest building in the world. Let's take a look at what was presented a little earlier this morning.
The first firm that presented was Studio Libeskind from Germany. These are the people who built the Jewish museum in Berlin. You can see what they propose here, a tower standing 1,776 feet tall. The World Trade Center stands about -- stood about 1,368 feet tall. This concept also calls for several smaller steel and glass type of modern buildings to surround the larger one.
Let's move on to version number two, Foster and Partners. They come to us from London, England. These are the people who rebuilt the German parliament building, the Reichstag. You can see there that what they're calling for is -- actually, that is Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill.
That particular building there much different from what I was describing. Let's move now to Foster and Partners from England. There you see it there. These are the people, as I said, who rebuilt the Reichstag. It looks like one single tower there. It is supposed to look like a monolith from a distance. It is actually two towers that will touch and kiss each other in the words of architecture -- words of the architects at different points. That particular structure standing 765 feet tall.
Let's move on now to the next one that presented, Meier, Eisenman, Gwathmey, and Holl. They also come from the United States. These are the people who built the Getty museum in Los Angeles. Somewhat of an unusual design here. You've got three buildings with sky walkways that connect the three, then you have got two additional buildings also with sky walkways. Five buildings total, 1,100 feet tall. They say when you look at their structure, they want you to think of two hands coming together.
Now let's move on to the fourth team that presented, the Think Team. This is a team made up of architects from the United States, also from the international community. Somewhat of a dramatic design. These -- what they're contemplating are two decorative towers, two Eiffel towers, so to speak, each one standing about 2,100 feet tall.
Unfortunately, Kyra, what we're showing there is not exactly what I wanted you to see. Maybe it's going to tilt up there so you can get a better vantage point of what I'm talking about. Several smaller buildings, 30 stories tall, will surround the larger once. Also, there will be some sort of a large public space that you saw there, about 13 acres of public space.
Let's move on to the next one. United Architects, also a group representing architects from the United States and the international community. This firm bills itself as a new generation type of firm, all the architects are younger than 45 years old. What they're talking about are five towers, all connecting above the 50th floor. The tallest one about 1,620 feet. The tallest tower, 112 stories. The World Trade Center stood at 110 stories. They said they wanted to return pride to the site of the World Trade Center.
Number six, Peterson/Littenberg, this is the husband and wife team from New York City. They're sort of called the small firm that could. They're proposing two twin towers that symbolize triumph, each one standing at about 1,400 feet tall. They also proposed a large promenade that you see there in the middle with some sort of a grassy area. In fact, all the plans call for some sort of a promenade in some way, shape, or form.
Now, finally, back to number seven. This is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. This group also coming to us from the United States. These are the people who initially are the ones who are going to be building the new Penn Station. There you see a cluster of nine buildings, some of them 80 floors, about 1,100 feet, and what they're saying is when you look at their particular site, they want you to think of a vertical city.
All of the plans call for some sort of a transportation hub and some sort of a memorial. Just a quick bit of history, the Lower Manhattan Development Company, this is the entity that's responsible for rebuilding downtown. Back in July, they came up with an architectural firm that came up with six original designs. Those designs were put out to the public.
The public criticized those designs, basically saying that they were not inspirational enough, saying that they were dull. So they went back to the drawing board, came up with seven new architectural teams. They told them to be inspirational in their particular designs. These designs will be put on -- put out for public display. The public will get its chance to give its input on these designs as well. In fact, they're going to even come up with a Web site, Kyra, so no matter where you are, you can log on and sort of write in whatever your opinion may be. Also, very quickly, I had mentioned that we could end up with the tallest building in the world. The tallest one at this point stands in Kuala Lumpur. Those are the Petronas Towers. They stand at 1,483 feet tall. Final decision will be made sometime in February -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Wow. I am amazed, Jason, that you got all that information. Sorry we didn't get the pictures exactly right, but we get the feel for all the ideas. Thank you so much.
CARROLL: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 18, 2002 - 13:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Rising from the ruins. Getting our first look at new proposals for rebuilding Ground Zero. After New Yorkers rejected the first ideas, designers went back to the drawing board. Today there are seven new ideas for the World Trade Center site.
For that, we go to CNN's Jason Carroll in New York. He has been on it from the very beginning -- Hi, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good afternoon to you, Kyra. The presentation has ended, but if you take a look behind me, you can see that there are still dozens of journalists from all over the world that are still trying to reach out to some of the architects from all over the world who presented their ideas.
At the end of the day, what could we end up with here in New York city? We could end up with the largest -- the tallest building in the world. Let's take a look at what was presented a little earlier this morning.
The first firm that presented was Studio Libeskind from Germany. These are the people who built the Jewish museum in Berlin. You can see what they propose here, a tower standing 1,776 feet tall. The World Trade Center stands about -- stood about 1,368 feet tall. This concept also calls for several smaller steel and glass type of modern buildings to surround the larger one.
Let's move on to version number two, Foster and Partners. They come to us from London, England. These are the people who rebuilt the German parliament building, the Reichstag. You can see there that what they're calling for is -- actually, that is Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill.
That particular building there much different from what I was describing. Let's move now to Foster and Partners from England. There you see it there. These are the people, as I said, who rebuilt the Reichstag. It looks like one single tower there. It is supposed to look like a monolith from a distance. It is actually two towers that will touch and kiss each other in the words of architecture -- words of the architects at different points. That particular structure standing 765 feet tall.
Let's move on now to the next one that presented, Meier, Eisenman, Gwathmey, and Holl. They also come from the United States. These are the people who built the Getty museum in Los Angeles. Somewhat of an unusual design here. You've got three buildings with sky walkways that connect the three, then you have got two additional buildings also with sky walkways. Five buildings total, 1,100 feet tall. They say when you look at their structure, they want you to think of two hands coming together.
Now let's move on to the fourth team that presented, the Think Team. This is a team made up of architects from the United States, also from the international community. Somewhat of a dramatic design. These -- what they're contemplating are two decorative towers, two Eiffel towers, so to speak, each one standing about 2,100 feet tall.
Unfortunately, Kyra, what we're showing there is not exactly what I wanted you to see. Maybe it's going to tilt up there so you can get a better vantage point of what I'm talking about. Several smaller buildings, 30 stories tall, will surround the larger once. Also, there will be some sort of a large public space that you saw there, about 13 acres of public space.
Let's move on to the next one. United Architects, also a group representing architects from the United States and the international community. This firm bills itself as a new generation type of firm, all the architects are younger than 45 years old. What they're talking about are five towers, all connecting above the 50th floor. The tallest one about 1,620 feet. The tallest tower, 112 stories. The World Trade Center stood at 110 stories. They said they wanted to return pride to the site of the World Trade Center.
Number six, Peterson/Littenberg, this is the husband and wife team from New York City. They're sort of called the small firm that could. They're proposing two twin towers that symbolize triumph, each one standing at about 1,400 feet tall. They also proposed a large promenade that you see there in the middle with some sort of a grassy area. In fact, all the plans call for some sort of a promenade in some way, shape, or form.
Now, finally, back to number seven. This is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. This group also coming to us from the United States. These are the people who initially are the ones who are going to be building the new Penn Station. There you see a cluster of nine buildings, some of them 80 floors, about 1,100 feet, and what they're saying is when you look at their particular site, they want you to think of a vertical city.
All of the plans call for some sort of a transportation hub and some sort of a memorial. Just a quick bit of history, the Lower Manhattan Development Company, this is the entity that's responsible for rebuilding downtown. Back in July, they came up with an architectural firm that came up with six original designs. Those designs were put out to the public.
The public criticized those designs, basically saying that they were not inspirational enough, saying that they were dull. So they went back to the drawing board, came up with seven new architectural teams. They told them to be inspirational in their particular designs. These designs will be put on -- put out for public display. The public will get its chance to give its input on these designs as well. In fact, they're going to even come up with a Web site, Kyra, so no matter where you are, you can log on and sort of write in whatever your opinion may be. Also, very quickly, I had mentioned that we could end up with the tallest building in the world. The tallest one at this point stands in Kuala Lumpur. Those are the Petronas Towers. They stand at 1,483 feet tall. Final decision will be made sometime in February -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Wow. I am amazed, Jason, that you got all that information. Sorry we didn't get the pictures exactly right, but we get the feel for all the ideas. Thank you so much.
CARROLL: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
