Complete Architecture Team Now Chosen for the Trade Center Memorial

By Jodie Carter

The twin towers before September 11.

On April 13, the architecture firm of Davis Brody Bond was chosen by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (MDC) to work with architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker, who earlier this year won a juried competition with their proposal, "Reflecting Absence" for the trade center memorial.

The MDC also approved a $45 million contract with the Gilbane Building Company to dismantle (by deconstruction rather than implosion) a 40-story building at 130 Liberty Street, which is near ground zero.

According to an environmental impact statement approved by state officials, while the purpose of the WTC memorial is to honor Sept. 11 victims and enhance the historic significance of the site, the ?EUR??,,????'??deconstruction?EUR??,,????'?? project "would also likely require removal of some remnants of the former W.T.C." The impact statement concluded that adverse impacts (including significant traffic, noise and short-term air quality) are inevitable if the significant benefits of the proposed action are to be realized.

How will the deconstruction of 130 Liberty Street affect the landscape construction efforts led by design of Arad and Walker? In a statement released by MDC to the New York Times, Arad said he was fortunate to have such strong support to assist him in the complex endeavor.

Vartan Gregorian, chairman of the memorial jury, commissioned work from MDC when he was president of the New York Public Library and later of Brown University. According to Gregorian, the MDC would not do anything to scuttle the vision of Arad and Walker, adding that the MDC knows the ways of New York and how things are done.

Source: www.nytimes.com