Ground zero plans criticised
The six blueprints for the redevelopment of Ground Zero were today criticised for lacking imagination and being driven by ‘‘hard economics’’ rather than concerns for the area.
‘‘These plans aren’t broad enough, bold enough or big enough,’’ said Mitchell Moss, head of New York University’s Taub Urban Research Centre.
He said the designs, which all include memorials and proposals to replace the 11 million square feet of office and retail space lost when the World Trade Centre, in New York was destroyed, were ‘‘remarkably timid’’.
Urban planner Margaret Helfand, from the New York New Visions group, said they did not meet the spirit of design principles previously outlined by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
‘‘That called for a vibrant, mixed use community. What we got was what was there before, packaged differently.’’
Architect Beverly Willis, the founder of civic group Rebuild Downtown Our Town, said the plans were driven by hard economics.
‘‘There’s no heart in them and no recognition of what we all had been led to believe would occur, that we would wind up with something wonderful on this site.’’
Even New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has seemed unenthusiastic, commenting that the plans were simply ‘‘a start.’’
The similar blueprints all include a cluster of buildings around open space and a September 11 memorial.
The highest proposed structure is 85 storeys high, 25 less than the 110-storey World Trade Centre.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani attacked proposals in two of the designs to build on the twin towers’ footprints.
‘‘It’s a burial ground,’’ he said. ‘‘And beyond that it’s a site of great historical significance in the future of this country.’’
Many victims relatives and New York Governor George Pataki have also said there should be no commercial development on the space where the towers once stood.
Officials have emphasised the proposals are only starting points for further discussion.
John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said the ideas could be mixed and matched and reconstituted based on public input.
But Kathryn Wylde, head of the New York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce, said she was pleased with the broadly similar plans.
‘‘From the standpoint of those of us who would like to recover the jobs and the economic output that we lost because of 9/11, we were glad that there wasn’t a huge difference in the design proposals.’’
Some 5,000 people are expected to discuss the plans at a public meeting in New York on Saturday.
The six proposals will be narrowed down to three by September and the final design will be chosen in December.
