The new World Trade Center

The destruction of the World Trade Center has left a mountain of rubble and grief in the heart of New York. As that mountain is carted away, the valley that will emerge will leave us with emptiness and sadness. It is essential that we rebuild the World Trade Center as quickly as possible. If we plan properly, it can become a vibrant new center for lower Manhattan, a place of pilgrimage and inspiration, and still a center of commerce. The following is a vision of what a new World Trade Center can be. Connectivity To keep lower Manhattan strong, we must make the new World Trade Center the center of our regional transportation system. We must begin with connectivity. Below the trade center, where the subway lines meet the PATH train, we need to create a station that is inspirational, one that draws people to it, one that gives the visitor a sense of having arrived at an important center. We must connect it by transit to the three airports and more efficiently to Grand Central and Pennsylvania stations. We also need to ensure that the area remains enriched with multiple fiber pathways for communications and sites on a diverse and redundant power grid. The plaza We have an opportunity to make new World Trade Center a world pilgrimage site. We should build a new public plaza, or series of plazas, that should be open and elegant. Unlike the old plaza, it should be at street level, connected to the thriving New York City pedestrian life. The plaza should include a memorial, but also affirm the principles for which we stand, exemplified by the traditional form of American cities and towns. At the center of our historic communities, a town square represents our willingness to work together for the common good. Surrounding the square were four buildings — a town hall, a courthouse, a library, and a church. These represent Democracy, justice, knowledge (and free access to information), and religious freedom. In between those buildings were the shops that gave birth to American entrepreneurialism. The new World Trade Center plaza might be surrounded by the four types of civic buildings, along with restaurants and cafes, to provide vibrancy. A place of remembrance for those who died in the tragedy should be near houses of worship, or an interfaith house of worship. The plaza might also be the site for a museum or performance hall to affirm the importance of culture to the city. Ultimately, the plaza has the potential to become the new civic square for lower Manhattan. The new buildings Above the plaza a new World Trade Center should rise, for it is essential that New York remain the center of world trade and finance. Rather than two tall towers, we should build a composition of many buildings with a range of floor plates to accommodate many uses, the Rockefeller Center of the 21st Century. We should aspire to make the finest buildings in America — buildings that people travel all over the world to see as they now travel to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim. The project will include the work of many great designers, but their work must blend into a unified vision. The buildings should reflect the state-of-the-art of building technology, communications, and environmental responsibility, to set the country on a pathway to energy independence. We can actually build as many square feet without going as high as the old World Trade Center. The new buildings should include offices, hotels, retail and restaurants, perhaps even housing. Implementation It is essential that we think through the organizational structure, the physical plan, the financing, the infrastructure plan and the implementation plan simultaneously as they are all interdependent. First, we need to clarify the rights and roles of the Port Authority, developer Larry Silverstein (who holds the lease to the World Trade Center), his investors and insurers, and the city and state. It would make sense to create a new development corporation to manage the project. It should draw support from the city, state, and federal governments, not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. This entity would manage the planning, design, finance, and construction of the redevelopment. The project will need to be build on time and on budget, and the work will have to be coordinated with the rebuilding of a tremendous amount of infrastructure. One person cannot do all of these things. The development entity will need a board, with leaders in planning, design, finance, law, construction, and operations all contributing time and leadership. The board chair, a key position, needs to understand the goals, design, and implementation process to bring out the best of each board member, the staff and the many agencies, clients, and citizens who ultimately will be involved. Jonathan Rose is a developer based in Katonah, New York.