| What's to be done with the site on which the World Trade Center once stood? New York city planners, architects and community leaders struggled – with tact and appropriate delicacy – to devise a structure that paid homage to the thousands of lives lost and a land-use solution that satisfied all interests. Now, with the recent announcement that Studio Daniel Libeskind has won the worldwide architectural design competition, work can begin in earnest to rebuild the World Trade Center – as well as a wide swath of downtown Manhattan. Supplanting the 1,300-foot WTC towers – built in the early 1970s – with a suitable, modern structure is a project as daunting as the original towers themselves. However, engineers see the project as a golden opportunity to improve on the towers' design. Using the very latest materials and energy sources – as well as taking into account the structural and technical problems exposed by the disaster – architects plan one of the most progressive, gutsy buildings ever conceived. Follow the story of a new approach to public architecture – the incorporation of new technologies, a new appreciation for the human scale of massive construction projects, and a new emphasis on becoming a more organic part of the surrounding neighborhood. Join a host of the world's best building minds as they struggle to engineer the future – while honoring the past. |
