Manhattan in memoriam
The continuing question over what should rise or spread on the
World Trade Centre site becomes increasingly pertinent as 11 September
approaches. Of course in mediaeval Europe, assuming the perpetrators
had been caught a series of gibbets would have risen, with their
weights swaying gently in the Atlantic breeze. But a more benign
rationale has encouraged numerous notables, from Salman Rushdie
on, to speculate as to what is the most appropriate and timeless
commemoration. At the beginning of this year the Max Protetch art
gallery organised an ideas exhibition. These ranged from a giant
American flag, to an ingenious spiral stair by Steven Holl that
curved and twisted around the vacuous centre of it all. Two vertical
beams of light were another inspired concept, leaving the site area
wholly clear below for ‘normal life’. In all Protetch
assembled at the time some 45 architectural concepts. Prominent
among these were Zaha Hadid and also Will Alsop (the latter never
one to miss a rhetorical opportunity from Britain. The most moving
entry was Daniel Libeskind’s jagged assembly of towers, which
still conveyed something of the ruinous site, yet rising out and
upwards powerfully. Meanwhile developer Larry Silverstein hired
two architectural firms to develop a new scheme for the 99-year
leasehold that he owns. Memorably too, photographer Joe McNally
had made 85 portraits of the actual surviving individuals, fire
heroes, Red Cross workers, even animal rescuers, priests and news
photographers — some of these portrayed with up to seven feet
high images. McNally’s subjects visited him in his own studio
in lower Manhattan. The exhibition is doing the rounds across the
US now, following its initial airing in Grand Central Station. It
should come soon to Europe.
