[design] So there it is:

The Commerce of Commemoration
Thu Jan 13, 3:33 PM ET // via archnewsnow.com
Op/Ed - The Nation, Andrew Rice
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2281&ncid=742&e=1&u=/ thenation/20050113/cm_thenation/20050131rice>

'This is a remarkable story: one of grit and determination, of unprecedented accomplishment at breakneck pace, amid the harshest possible public scrutiny. So why are the authors of three new books so disappointed? Paul Goldberger's ~Up ~From ~Zero, Philip Nobel's ~Sixteen ~Acres and Daniel Libeskind's ~Breaking ~Ground approach the redevelopment project from different perspectives...'

'They have appeared with the same headlong speed that characterized the entire rebuilding initiative. It may seem strange to read assessments of structures that, as of now, remain little more than plastic models and pencil marks. But these books are not premature, because they are not really about architecture. They are about politics, ambition, ego and greed...'

.... [re: ideology of the skyscraper typology]

'The process demanded that something be rebuilt, quickly, to demonstrate America's resolve (and to promote Pataki's 2002 re-election bid). And since skyscrapers were destroyed, skyscrapers would rise, to send a message to the terrorists (and to shore up Silverstein). Whether new skyscrapers were necessary, whether new skyscrapers were a proper way to pay tribute to the dead, whether new skyscrapers made any economic sense--the process required that these valid questions be shunted aside in the interest of speed. "A deliberative pace," Nobel writes, "was precluded by the associated politics of revenge."'

[quote: "In martyrdom, the towers finally won the love of their city."]


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