The WTC plan includes:
•Five new skyscrapers (1 WTC, Freedom Tower; Towers 2, 3, 4, and 5)- World Trade Center 7 is already built.
•National September 11 Memorial/Museum at the WTC
•WTC Rail Hub
• Retail Complex
• Performing Arts Center

(Note: The Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein are in charge of building the five office towers, the memorial and the transit hub.)

Off with Their Heads?
In a Sept. 10 editorial in the Wall Street Journal, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed to abolish the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), the agency that approved redevelopment plans at ground zero. He also wants to scale back the multibillion-dollar commuter rail hub, which he said is “too complicated to build.”

Mayor Bloomberg has led the efforts to raise $350 million in private funds for the memorial. He termed the LMDC a “redundant layer of bureaucracy.” The LMDC is part of the state development agency and has city and state-appointed board members. LMDC was formed by former Gov. George Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Before resigning his office, N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer called the LMDC “an abject failure,” but nevertheless kept it alive and appointed one of his top aides to chair it.

Mayor Bloomberg said there should be a commitment to open the memorial to the public by the 10th anniversary of the attacks (2011).

In June, Gov. David Paterson ordered the Port Authority to re-evaluate all ground zero projects.

The Memorial & Museum
Meanwhile, the WTC Memorial, “Reflecting Absence,” is on track to open on September 11, 2010. The memorial is “two voids on the footprints of the original Twin Towers,” surrounded by a plaza landscaped with oaks. The “voids” will feature rings of cascading water falling into illuminated reflecting pools. The names of the 2,979 people who died (all the attack sites plus the February 1993 WTC bombing) will be inscribed around the edge of the memorial waterfalls.

“Reflecting Absence” is the design of architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker.

On site will also be an art museum designed by Davis Brody Bond, accessed by an entry pavilion. The glass and steel pavilion design by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, was unveiled on Sept. 11, 2008. The pavilion will go between the two memorial pools on the northeast quadrant of the plaza.