Mayor says he prefers Libeskind's WTC design

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 26, 2003 by Steve Viuker

Mayor Bloomberg said he prefers the Ground Zero plan by Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind, which leaves much of the pit open as a memorial space. The mayor's remarks on his weekly radio show were the first time a major elected official has voiced a preference on the two remaining designs.

Asked what he thought of the plan for the latticework towers, Bloomberg said: "I personally like the other one (Libeskind), but I don't feel strongly about it and I think what people have got to understand is what comes out of this is suggestions."

A special committee is expected to pick either the Libeskind or THINK designs within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Larry Silverstein had told the New York Post's editorial board that he doesn't understand the THINK team of architects' latticework towers, noting, "the evacuation requirements would be massive." The developer also criticized Daniel Libeskind's plan, which would retain the foundations of the original towers as a memorial.

He said executives at "a number of major financial institutions" have told him they would not want to rent offices looking down on the open pit where the towers once stood. The development corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land, have asked the two teams of architects to alter their plans to address engineering problems in the pit.

The New York Times reported last week that both the THINK team and Studio Daniel Libeskind have been asked to include space for parking, public transit and other purposes in the seven-acre pit. However, John Whitehead, the head of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. said that Silverstein is cooperating with the rebuilding effort. Whitehead said he is "much more optimistic" than he would be just from reading media accounts of Silverstein's dissatisfaction with the two designs for a rebuilt trade center chosen last week.

Libeskind has been asked to raise the floor of his planned memorial area to roughly 25 feet below ground level, while the THINK team has been asked to reduce the height of its proposed latticework towers in order to alter the base of their frames.

Officials from the Port Authority, which owns the land beneath the site, also are said to be leaning toward Libeskind's plan, sources said. Only Roland Betts - a board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. who is close to President Bush - is leaning toward the THINK plan, sources said Gov. Pataki has not expressed a preference for either design. Bloomberg yesterday emphasized the plan that's chosen will be more of a rough draft for the site rather than an exact blueprint. The buildings that will be built will be decided not based on this plan necessarily, but by who wants to build them and where the money comes from and who wants to rent them or live in them or shop in them," Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg dismissed plans to wrest control of Kennedy and La Guardia Airports from the Port Authority and lease them to a private company - a longtime proposal of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani. There is no place to sell the airports to. I don't know where that idea came from," Bloomberg said. But the mayor continues to push a proposed deal with the PA to swap the city-owned land under the airports with the property the bi-state agency controls at Ground Zero, calling it a "win-win."