architecture

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

WTC = World Trump Center?

Looks like Donald Trump is going to follow through on his words from a couple weeks ago when he panned Freedom Tower and pushed for rebuilding the Twin Towers "only stronger and a little bit taller, even if it's only one story taller."
"They should...not build something that looks like an empty skeleton...The design for the Freedom Tower is an egghead design, designed by an egghead, which has no practical application and which, frankly, didn't look very good. I've gotten great reviews on my buildings. I'm somebody who believes strongly in great architecture and [Freedom Tower]...is just not a good design." (my italics)
It's obvious Trump isn't enamored with Libeskind and thinks very highly of his own taste, though I can't recall much positive praise for his buildings, which tend to be unexceptional at best. Ironically his Trump Tower in Chicago, which has received some good words in print for its design (though countered by criticism of its mass and siting), is designed by the same behemoth as the majority of Freedom Tower, SOM.

Missing image - trump.jpg

Now the New York Post reports that Trump will unveil "his own design for a rebuilt 111-story 'World Trade Center' at Ground Zero at a press conference tomorrow." The billionaire explains that they
"took the original World Trade Center design, brought it into the modern age, made it more beautiful than ever before, made it one story taller, made it higher lined, and took out the architectural weaknesses that were there...We also strengthened the building internally so that what happened on 9/11 could never happen again...Some people thought [the World Trade Center] was too monolithic. We've put on a higher lined curtain wall, which will make the exterior much more vivid and beautiful."
I'm not exactly sure what he's means when he says "higher lined", though we will know tomorrow when the model is unveiled. There's no mention of the architect designing this tower or if Team Twin Towers - a group pushing for the towers' reconstruction since their destruction - or any like-minded contemporaries are involved. Stay tuned.

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