Daniel Libeskind’s experiences of Ground Zero since his victory
in the competition to redevelop the site earlier this year have
shown one thing at least: that none of his competitors could have
taken it all the way he has done. And it does look as though the
Libeskind scheme will survive the in-fighting in some form.
But it should not be forgotten that the owner of the lease, Larry
Silverstein, is himself embattled by bankers and insurers, and by
the bereaved families. Libeskind’s centrepiece, The Freedom
Tower, at 1,776 feet, has itself become contentious.
Silverstein proposes to hive off much of the design work to veteran
New York designers, Skidmore Owings and Merrill. As Libeskind himself
recently said, ‘You have to represent what you believe in,
and you have to remember that this design was selected … not
in a boardroom by some elite backroom dealers. It was done in a
transparent process with all the citizens of New York and 50 million
people voting on the Internet. My responsibility is to that great
constituency’. So, what happens to the actual remnant of the
site? How much closer can the Freedom Tower be moved to the Subway?
Can the idea of some of the families for a reflecting pool in the
footprint of the towers be incorporated? What other vital ingredients,
conceived for the site, will survive? Apart from office and retail
space, will it be a cultural nexus, a memorial, a transit hub? Here
it is Libeskind’s rare talent, a genie of the modern city, which
is likely, in the end, to deliver an, as yet, unrealised recombination
of all the required ingredients, but with that unique flash of intuition
and brilliance which only he can supply. All this against a backdrop
of a New York recession now officially in its tenth quarter. While
London’s Blitz spirit may be a well-worn comparison, it is, nevertheless,
apt for New Yorkers at this time.
