Daniel Libeskind, Original Architect For New WTC, Speaks Out About The Development Of The Site
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Daniel Libeskind, the original architect for the new World Trade Center, is seeing his vision come to life.
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On one side of the site is the memorial pools, the one-acre Twin Tower footprints with their half-million gallon waterfalls and architectural lighting that illuminates a vast grove of trees.
On the other side is scaffolding and cranes that point to what's yet to be done.
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Libeskind remembers the day he first set foot on the site.
"I felt the lost souls. As I touched that 75-foot-deep foundation, I saw that slurry wall, that huge retaining wall that sort of held up during the attack (we should have never seen it and yet was still the foundation of the site). I thought to myself, this is not just about buildings, it's about memory," he said. "It's how to bring the memory and how to create that memory of those who perished, almost 3,000 people from 90 different countries."
Libeskind says that memory is the foundation for the resurgence of life at the World Trade Center site.
He adds that architecture's answer to the 9/11 attacks is optimism and rebuilding.
Libeskind's original design for the Freedom Tower was replaced by a modified design for One World Trade Center by architect David Childs, which maintains the 1,776-foot height.
How do you feel about the design of the World Trade Center? Sound off in the comments section below.
