How do you build a moment’s silence; a practical, corporate hub that is also a symbol of resilience, defiance and renewal, yet respect the memories of those who died in the most devastating act of terrorism in modern history?
“That’s not what skyscrapers do,” notes one interviewee in the documentary 16 Acres. And so the backdrop is set for director Richard Hankin’s pacey visual reportage on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, 11 years after its Twin Towers were attacked on 9 September 2001.
16 Acres is a portrayal of the colossal imbroglio that has been the redevelopment of the 16-acre WTC site.
The story is told through interviews with key people on the project and is narrated by Philip Noble, who wrote Sixteen Acres: Architecture and the Outrageous Struggle for the Future of Ground Zero, and Esquire journalist Scott Raab. Their resigned and sardonic commentary, teamed with Hankin’s even-handed treatment of the subject, makes this film unique and enjoyable viewing.
The film demonstrates how the competition to design the WTC masterplan (memorial, museum, four towers, a skyscraper and a transport hub) – an architecture prize unrivalled in its significance – was so fierce it became a “bloodsport”.
And the selection process tumbled into a charade. We witness a ruthless power play, with a decision by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) trumped by the ambitious three-term New York governor George Pataki, who preferred a design by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind of a descending spiral of towers beginning at “Freedom Tower” and ending at a memorial and museum at the Twin Towers’ footprints.
However, WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein – who bought the Twin Towers six weeks before the attacks – wouldn’t have it. Despite an illustrious career, Libeskind had never built a skyscraper and this was “architectural open heart surgery”, as one interviewee put it. Silverstein’s answer was to draft in 7 WTC architect David Childs, to revise Libeskind’s work.
As if to rub salt in the wound, at a Pataki press conference to unveil One WTC, the last remnant of Libeskind’s design – a spire which reached to the symbolic 1,776 ft (1776 was the year America won independence) – was lopped as staff carried a model of the tower out of the room. It was never to be seen again.
Nor was a cornerstone that was the feature of a string of farcical media calls; the irony being that cornerstones aren’t used in skyscrapers.
But there’s also a thoughtful undertone to the film. Raab describes Ground Zero as “the most valuable 16 acres on the face of the Earth”. And perhaps The New York Times put it best when it noted: “Where some saw lucrative real estate, others saw a graveyard. Where some saw Rockefeller Center or Lincoln Center or Grand Central Terminal, others saw Gettysburg.”
So, if you couldn’t appreciate before why consensus was so difficult to achieve on this project, Hankin sheds some light.
Silverstein is the man footing the bill for the rebuilding. He is painted as a ruthless, but earnest businessman, and we warm to him. In one of the film’s sentimental flourishes, he chokes up over his colleagues who perished on 9/11 and recalls the backlash when he tried to claim the attacks were two separate events in order to recoup insurance. He eventually wins on that front, but on another front, fights battle after battle with the Port Authority.
Rosaleen Tallon, the sister of a probationary firefighter who died on 9/11, is another of the film’s embattled soldiers. She campaigns tirelessly to have the voices of victims’ families heard in the planning of the National 9/11 Memorial. After numerous wrangles, designer Michael Arad’s creation manifested as a field of trees interrupted by cascading pools of water in the footprints of the Twin Towers, encased in the names of the 2,981 people who died. Ramps take you beneath the pools to a memorial space away from the hubbub of the city. Every minutiae of the memorial, down to the order of the names, was debated. It is a wonder it came into fruition at all.
But that’s the thing: this project is so monumental and so charged that no one dares dismiss another’s input as less important than their own. Commercial interests must be reconciled with the aesthetic, the emotional with the bureaucratic, and so it goes; democracy in full flight. That takes time. But, what must simultaneously be managed is the city’s expectation of progress. Plus, with the commercial heart of New York decimated, there is an economy to restore.
As Hankin pulled back the curtains on this morass, I sympathised with the developers. And now I cast an eye over the Lower Manhattan skyline, virtually at least, and wish for speed and success in delivering this national symbol, for it has to be the most complex development scheme modern civilisation has known.
16 Acres was shown last month at a charity screening for the Portland2Portland cycle ride.
| Timeline: How WTC has risen from the ashes | |
|---|---|
| 11 September 2001 | Terrorists destroy the World Trade Center. |
| 2001-2002 | Debris clean up. |
| May 2002 | Recovery operation complete. |
| July 2002 | The first design competition for the WTC reconstruction opens, but the plans are slated as boring. |
| November 2002 | Silverstein announces plans for 7 WTC, a 52-storey steel and glass skyscraper. Construction begins soon after. |
| December 2002 | Second masterplan competition launches and receives 2,000 entries. Seven shortlisted designers make presentations. |
| February 2003 | Liebeskind’s proposal is chosen, with towers one, two, three and four restoring 11m sq ft of office space destroyed in the attacks. Freedom Tower (later called One WTC) is a 1,776 ft, 104-storey torque-like tower at the centre of the WTC’s 16 acres. |
| December 2003 | The Liebeskind-Childs revised Freedom Tower is unveiled as 70-storeys of glass, steel and cable, with 2.6m sq ft of office space, an underground transport hub, garages and several shopping centres. There will also be a public observation deck and a restaurant on the top floor. |
| January 2004 | 5,201 design submissions from 62 countries flood in for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Michael Arad’s Reflecting Absence is chosen. The museum winds through the foundations of the original WTC and links the reflecting pools of the memorial. |
| July 2004 | Freedom Tower cornerstone is laid by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. |
| 2005 | Construction stalls owing to security concerns over the Freedom Tower design. |
| September 2005 | Work begins on the $2.21bn terminal and transport hub. |
| April 2006 | Silverstein relinquishes his rights to build Freedom Tower and 5 WTC (which could be leased out to a private residential developer) to the Port Authority and retains the rights to build WTC two, three and four. The agreement ends four months of financial wrangling and construction can finally begin. |
| May 2006 | The rebuilt 52-storey 7 WTC, just north of Ground Zero, is opened. It had been destroyed by flying debris and fire on 9/11. |
| December 2006 | Several 30ft, 25-ton steel beams mark the first vertical construction on Freedom Tower. |
| September 2007 | Designs and construction plans for towers two, three and four, by architects Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Fumihiko Maki, are unveiled. |
| December 2008 | A stairway used as an escape route by people fleeing the attacks, renamed Survivors’ Stairway, is uprooted and shifted to the future entrance of the museum. |
| March 2010 | A development plan for the east side of the WTC site calls for the completion of the 2.3m sq ft 4 WTC by 2013, 3 WTC by 2015 and phase-in of 2 WTC over time. One WTC (expected to be completed in early 2014), the memorial, museum and transport hub will continue moving forward. |
| August 2010 | For the first time every part of the site is under construction. |
| 2011 | Memorial completed. |
| February 2011 | New York City government is the first tenant to sign up to the east side of the WTC site, leasing 14 floors in 4 WTC. |
| May 2011 | Conde Nast becomes the anchor tenant on One WTC in a $2bn deal for 1m sq ft on a 25-year lease. |
| September 2011 | Lower Manhattan becomes the fastest-growing residential quarter of NYC, adding 26,800 residents over the past decade. The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 is marked with a dedication ceremony for the memorial and museum. MSCI signs a 20-year, 125,000 sq ft lease at 7 WTC, making it the first tower with 100% occupancy. |
| June 2011 | 4 WTC is the first building to top out. The building is expected to open around September 2013. |
| October 2011 | New York Human Resources Administration takes 582,000 sq ft at 4 WTC. |
| 2012 | One WTC becomes the tallest building in New York, surpassing the Empire State Building’s 1,250ft. |
| October 2012 | Hurricane Sandy hits and the bedrock level of the unfinished museum floods with 7ft of water. |
| January 2013 | The first section of the illuminated spire is installed at One WTC. |
