Twin Towers

[RStar]

As September 11 approches, I got to thinking about the Twin Towers. I know that the way they were built, in conjuction with the intense flames from the jet fuel, were responsible for the total collaps of the buildings. So my questions are:

If they were built differently and had stood, and been repaired, would you want to go in there and work or even visit? Granted, without the total devistation it wouldn't be as horrific a memory, but the fires would have still taken a lot of lives.

Also, if they had decided to rebuild the towers from the ground up to replace them exactly as they were, would you work, visit, or put a buisness in there?

I think the memorial looks great, and was the best use of the land with all things considered. But I just had this thought this morning. My answer would be no on working there daily, but maybe for the visit. I didn't know anyone who died in there.

[Alex]

I wouldn't specifically seek it out, but I wouldn't have a problem with working in them either.

In the "damaged but repaired" scenario we already have some degree of an answer to that as thousands of people were still working in those buildings even though it at already been the target of a terrorist attack within the previous decade. And, of course, thousands of people continue to work in the Pentagon every day and at least a dozen a day visit a Pennsylvania field.

But then I find the idea of consecrating the place where people died to be odd anyway so I don't really place any talismanic value on the sites of the attacks either. And the sooner the attacks on 9/11 become an end-of-the-newshour footnote every year (as the Oklahoma City bombing already mostly is) the better for society in general (IMO).

A country that dwells too much on the suck in life finds itself killing people for really stupid reasons a couple centuries down the road.

[innerSpaceman]

I wouldn't work there (or, btw, at the new replacement) - but I would hazard a visit now and then. Chances of the eventual attempt to bring down the buildings would be minimal on any particular day - but I wouldn't tempt fated fate by being there every weekday.


I used to, in fact, visit the Towers very often. I worked a couple of blocks from there for many years, and spent a lot of lunch hours on top of the South Tower because it was such a rad and hightacular place to be (if I may quote from my recent el jay entry on this subject).


Fond as I was of the tower top, I also have bad memories from my early childhood of when we had to move every last stitch of my dad's store a to a new location a few blocks north because he'd been evicted so the towers could be built where his small business once stood. Plus, I've always thought there were the plainest, ugliest, boxiest, bloatedest, boringest buildings every built, and I hated the way the two unimaginative behemoths dominated the lower Manhattan skyline. Though obviously not happy about the reasons why and the ways how - I'm actually quite glad the towers are gone. They were an eyesore, in my opinion - and the new replacement tower is going to be much prettier.

The early 70's were not the height of design expression in any field.



I think the new memorial is a bit on the unimaginative side itself, but it will be prettier than the towers it commemorates. I'll be visiting there about 3 weeks after the memorial opens, and as a New Yorker (once and always), an American and a fan of architecture, I will have conflicted feelings about the towers being gone. ;)

[Kevy Baby]

Since I really didn't know much about the replacement buildings or their construction progress, I looked and found this site (http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/index.html). I am embarrassed that I didn't realize how far along they were on construction.

[alphabassettgrrl]

A country that dwells too much on the suck in life finds itself killing people for really stupid reasons a couple centuries down the road.

I agree.

I would probably visit the site, no matter what happened with it- rebuild, repaired, or monumented. It is a little strange to hold the ground and do nothing with it by virtue of it being a death site, but at the same time, it would maybe be a little strange to know people died in the place you work. At least, given the mass death. I don't think I'd be weirded out by single deaths or small-scale death.

Given how valuable land is in NYC, it shows how much the memory is valued since they aren't reclaiming the site.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, there's this little thing called Central Park in Manhattan. Boy, so much valuable real estate given up for grass and trees. Unthinkable!


Sorry, but aside from that beautiful island of parkland, there's not much greenery or park space in Manhattan. If just considered that, the memorial is a welcome addition to the island.


It looks like there's a fair amount of trees there. In fact, the two square "holes" with the water cascading down on all sides do not, as popularly assumed, represent the footprints of the towers. Those footprints are represented by lines of oak trees (mere saplings now), positioned a considerable distance further out.

[Kevy Baby]

Those footprints are represented by lines of oak trees (mere saplings now), positioned a considerable distance further out.I was looking at the plans and couldn't find the lines of oak trees; it just looks like a forest (see below). Or am I not looking in the right place?

http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/img/site_plan_north.jpg

[Kevy Baby]

BTW: this thread has really prompted me to spend a little time learning about the new site. I still have a hard time seeing the images for the 9/11 attack, so I think I have avoided anything to do with the site. But seeing everything being rebuilt actually has lifted my spirits.

[innerSpaceman]

Hmmm, can't find where I saw that, Kevy. Maybe I'll find out more about it when I'm there.

[Kevy Baby]

Hmmm, can't find where I saw that, Kevy. Maybe I'll find out more about it when I'm there.No worries - anything is appreciated

[RStar]

I had heard somewhere on the TV or newspaper that those squares were in the footprints where the towers stood. I'm trying to remember the exact wording, perhaps it was "IN the footprints", not "ARE the footprints".

[RStar]

It's wierd, but since I started this thread, I have seen two movies with the twin towers in them. The first one was a Disney movie I haven't seen in probably 20 years: Oliver & Company. The opening shot comes in off of Manhatten Island with the towers in the center, and that's about all you see of them.

The second I saw today, for the first time: Escape from New York. The Towers are featured quite a bit in that movie.

[€uroMeinke]

Anyone get the coloring book (http://theweek.com/article/index/218755/the-disgusting-911-memorial-coloring-book)?

http://4.images.theweek.com/img/generic/Coloring_creepy.jpg

[RStar]

Wow, I don't think that's very appropriate for kids.

[lashbear]

I know! It doesn't even come with a little box of crayons !

[flippyshark]

It's wierd, but since I started this thread, I have seen two movies with the twin towers in them. The first one was a Disney movie I haven't seen in probably 20 years: Oliver & Company. The opening shot comes in off of Manhatten Island with the towers in the center, and that's about all you see of them.

The second I saw today, for the first time: Escape from New York. The Towers are featured quite a bit in that movie.

Two of the most prominent uses I can think of: The Dino DeLaurentiis version of King Kong spends its last 15 minutes or so on the towers. It's also the site for the finale of the "All For The Best" number in the movie version of Godspell.

I'll be there in exactly two weeks. I'm missing the anniversary date by a week.

[Strangler Lewis]

Not to mention many establishing shots in "Friends." I believe the opening of "Moonstruck" features the towers, and I'd be surprised if they didn't show up in "Manhattan."

I was a kid in New York when they were being built, and it was a big deal. I remember thinking it was weird that they weren't like the Empire State Building or Chrysler Building, but I never felt that I had license to hate them.

[innerSpaceman]

Despite loving to go on top of them, I've always hated them. I'm so excited to see the lower Manhattan skyline without them next month, and -this may be horrible- but it was my one silver lining to that apocalyptic day 10 years ago that the towers would blight the city's aesthetics no more.

Also, the plaza between the towers was designed to be a vital public space, and never became so. Like so many of its early 70's counterparts, it was a concrete wasteland that appealed to no humans, and was not even at street level. Hence, it was always empty and cold.

The memorial is going to be so different, and so welcome. Full of greenery, at street level, and of course a high-profile tourist attraction - it will always be full of people and purpose. I'm looking forward to visiting, paying my respects, and feeling that -on a physical level at least- this area of the city has been much improved.

[scaeagles]

There were these (http://comicbookmovie.com/spider-man_movies/news/?a=5014) items for the first Toby McGuire Spiderman.

[BarTopDancer]

They are also shown in MIB.

I understand the kneejerk reaction to edit them out of films coming out then but to sanitize everything after the fact isn't going to change the fact that they were there and now they aren't.

[RStar]

To ISM's point of view, hasn't the Empire State Building been returned to it's statuce of being the tallest builing in NY? If so, that is cool, and considering it's archetecure compared to the towers, a fitting tribute to a more romantic past. Besides, I love the art-deco od that time period. Had that, the Statue of Liberty, and the White House been the succesfull targets, I think the american public would have garnerd much more hate than sadness.

[JWBear]

Temporarily. The new WTC Tower One will be taller when finished.

[Strangler Lewis]

Yes, gone are the days when having the tallest building in the world was a symbol of American virtue and optimism as opposed to a splashy display of wretched excess by foreigners.

[RStar]

Temporarily. The new WTC Tower One will be taller when finished.

Awwww.....

Can't they just put a taller antenna on the top to make it taller?? ;)