Take 3

As you probably know already, the latest revision to Freedom Tower was released today by Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, Larry Silverstein, and David Childs, basically everybody but the original designer. And even though Libeskind is now almost completely out of the picture (the only remnant of his winning masterplan for Freedom Tower is its 1,776' height), they did let Danny pose next to the slightly-reworked, highly-derivative design.


Photos from Yahoo! News

This latest design is in response to NYPD/FD's safety concerns, particularly in regard to car and truck bombs. Given that, and that nobody's going to want to move their office into Freedom Tower if and when it's done, the architects placed the tapered glass tower on an impenetrable, windowless base 200' tall. Yep, two hundred feet tall.



According to the LMDC's unintentionally-humorous web page, the 1,776-foot tall tower

:: Will Emit Light from Spire as a New Beacon of Freedom

:: Will Evoke Classic New York Skyscrapers in Elegance and Symmetry

:: Speaks to [the] Future While Solving Challenges of [the] Modern Urban Environment

According to Governor Pataki, this symmetrical tower design by David Childs "remains true to Daniel Libeskind'?s visionary master plan for the World Trade Center site...[and] will be a proud new icon that references great American symbols of strength and freedom such as the Statue of Liberty..." How's that? By abandoning the asymmetry that was part of a cohesive master plan of towers surrounding the site and referenced (to an arguable degree of success) the Statue of Liberty? By ousting Libeskind from the whole process entirely?

Mayor Bloomberg continued the empty political praise-fest, saying "This spectacular addition to our skyline will be a commanding architectural symbol...It is also an important part of our vision to transform Lower Manhattan into a vibrant 24-hour residential and commercial neighborhood." And how's that? By including in the program 0 s.f. of residential space and 2.6 million s.f. of office space? By not including residential space in any part of the masterplan?

Ignoring the fluffy praise and talk of a "new beacon of freedom", this latest design is definitely an improvement over the last design by Childs and Libeskind, and in some ways - as a stand-alone building - it's better than Libeskind's winning "place holder". But as an element in a larger masterplan, is it any good? What does it set up for the remaining towers and other structures to be built around it and the memorial? By being so purely symmetrical and bunker-like, it's basically ignoring its neighbors, saying it's more important than the larger urban fabric - present and future - of lower Manhattan. I hate to say it, but in some ways that fits in well with this country's behavior and stance toward the rest of the world since that tragic day almost four years ago.

Day after update: Curbed posts some views of the massive base from a fly-through movie at SOM's site.