Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
New Visions of Ground Zero
Aired December 18, 2002 - 11:26 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Restoring the New York City skyline and remembering the victims of September 11th. Those are two goals of the latest plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The plans are being unveiled this morning in New York City.
Our Jason Carroll is there with a sneak peek at the proposals.
Jason, good morning once again.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning you.
A sneak peek indeed. The city has come up with seven architect themes. They, in turn, came up with seven new designs.
Right now, you can take a live picture of the presentation that's going on behind me, and what has happened is they've unveiled some of the models of these new concepts. What we have already taken a look, though, at are the seven new designs. We've taken a look at them; now we want you to take a look at what we've already seen.
The first design comes from a team calling itself Studio Libiskiin (ph) from Germany. These are the people responsible for building the Jewish museum in Berlin. You can take a look at their design, what they've got there, a soaring tower that stands 1,776 feet tall, much taller than the World Trade Center, which stood at 1,368 feet tall. You can see that that concept also calls for several smaller steel towers to surround the larger one.
Let's move on to version number two coming from Foster and Partners from London, England. These are the folks that rebuilt the German parliament building, the Reichstag. Now, what it looks like there is one single tower, and it's supposed to look that way. It's supposed to look like a monolith from a distance. But now we're being told that's actually two towers that will kiss and touch each other, these words according to architects, at certain points. Again, much taller than the World Trade Center. This tower, or towers, depending upon how you see it, standing at 1,765 feet tall.
Let's move on to version number three, coming to us from a team from the United States, Meyer, Izenman Duckmey and Holl (ph), this is the team of architects that belt the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Somewhat of an unusual design here. You've got three buildings connected by sky walkways, two more buildings also connected by walkways. Each of those five buildings standing about 1,100 feet tall, and we're told that the concept behind this one is supposed to be like two hands that are coming together. Let's move on to version number four. This one is somewhat unusual, as well. This comes from the think team, a team of architects from the United States, as well as an international team, somewhat of a dramatic design in this one, two decorative types of towers also connected by some sort of a skyway there, that sky walkway. Those seem to be very popular with many of these designs. They said, if you can imagine two Eiffel Towers sort of standing side by side in downtown New York, this design also calling for some sort of a promenade as well. All of the designs, in fact, call for a promenade, an area for some sort of a memorial to stand, as well.
Let's now move on to version number five, and that comes from a firm called United Architects, and they call themselves the new generation of architects; that's because they say most of the people in their firm are under the age of 45. These are five towers that you're looking at, all connecting each other on the 57th floor, the highest one standing at about 112 stories; the World Trade Center standing at 110 stories.
Let's move on to version number six. Peterson, Littenberg (ph), a husband and wife team from New York City. Two twin towers in that particular version, standing about 14 square feet, promenade that you can see there in the center.
Now let's move on to version number 7, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (ph), also from the U.S. These are the folks responsible for building the new Penn Station. You can see a cluster of nine buildings there, 1,100 feet tall.
Just a quick bit of history, Daryn, back in July, the city came up with an architectural firm that came up with six designs for the site of the World Trade Center. Those designs put out for public scrutiny. The public heavily criticized those designs, saying they were dull and uninspiring.
So what they really wanted this time was for the seven teams of new architects was to come up with something very inspirational. These designs will be put out on public display, there will be public forums here in the city, and they're also going to up a Web site, so that people can log on and write in their opinions on this, as well. They're expected to come up with some sort of final decision sometime until February. But a lot of dramatic stuff that we're seeing out here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Yes, you can say what you want, but those drawings are definitely not dull or uninspired. Very creative. Thank you, Jason.
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 - 11:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Restoring the New York City skyline and remembering the victims of September 11th. Those are two goals of the latest plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The plans are being unveiled this morning in New York City.
Our Jason Carroll is there with a sneak peek at the proposals.
Jason, good morning once again.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning you.
A sneak peek indeed. The city has come up with seven architect themes. They, in turn, came up with seven new designs.
Right now, you can take a live picture of the presentation that's going on behind me, and what has happened is they've unveiled some of the models of these new concepts. What we have already taken a look, though, at are the seven new designs. We've taken a look at them; now we want you to take a look at what we've already seen.
The first design comes from a team calling itself Studio Libiskiin (ph) from Germany. These are the people responsible for building the Jewish museum in Berlin. You can take a look at their design, what they've got there, a soaring tower that stands 1,776 feet tall, much taller than the World Trade Center, which stood at 1,368 feet tall. You can see that that concept also calls for several smaller steel towers to surround the larger one.
Let's move on to version number two coming from Foster and Partners from London, England. These are the folks that rebuilt the German parliament building, the Reichstag. Now, what it looks like there is one single tower, and it's supposed to look that way. It's supposed to look like a monolith from a distance. But now we're being told that's actually two towers that will kiss and touch each other, these words according to architects, at certain points. Again, much taller than the World Trade Center. This tower, or towers, depending upon how you see it, standing at 1,765 feet tall.
Let's move on to version number three, coming to us from a team from the United States, Meyer, Izenman Duckmey and Holl (ph), this is the team of architects that belt the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Somewhat of an unusual design here. You've got three buildings connected by sky walkways, two more buildings also connected by walkways. Each of those five buildings standing about 1,100 feet tall, and we're told that the concept behind this one is supposed to be like two hands that are coming together. Let's move on to version number four. This one is somewhat unusual, as well. This comes from the think team, a team of architects from the United States, as well as an international team, somewhat of a dramatic design in this one, two decorative types of towers also connected by some sort of a skyway there, that sky walkway. Those seem to be very popular with many of these designs. They said, if you can imagine two Eiffel Towers sort of standing side by side in downtown New York, this design also calling for some sort of a promenade as well. All of the designs, in fact, call for a promenade, an area for some sort of a memorial to stand, as well.
Let's now move on to version number five, and that comes from a firm called United Architects, and they call themselves the new generation of architects; that's because they say most of the people in their firm are under the age of 45. These are five towers that you're looking at, all connecting each other on the 57th floor, the highest one standing at about 112 stories; the World Trade Center standing at 110 stories.
Let's move on to version number six. Peterson, Littenberg (ph), a husband and wife team from New York City. Two twin towers in that particular version, standing about 14 square feet, promenade that you can see there in the center.
Now let's move on to version number 7, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (ph), also from the U.S. These are the folks responsible for building the new Penn Station. You can see a cluster of nine buildings there, 1,100 feet tall.
Just a quick bit of history, Daryn, back in July, the city came up with an architectural firm that came up with six designs for the site of the World Trade Center. Those designs put out for public scrutiny. The public heavily criticized those designs, saying they were dull and uninspiring.
So what they really wanted this time was for the seven teams of new architects was to come up with something very inspirational. These designs will be put out on public display, there will be public forums here in the city, and they're also going to up a Web site, so that people can log on and write in their opinions on this, as well. They're expected to come up with some sort of final decision sometime until February. But a lot of dramatic stuff that we're seeing out here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Yes, you can say what you want, but those drawings are definitely not dull or uninspired. Very creative. Thank you, Jason.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
