Lower Manhattan on Most Endangered Sites L

NEW YORK, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The World Monuments Fund added lower Manhattan to its annual list of most endangered historic, artistic, and architectural sites Thursday as an emergency measure necessitated by the recent destruction of the World Trade Center.

The organization announced at a press conference that it is adding the historic district around the Twin Towers terrorist bombing site to its list of 100 threatened sites drawn up before the Sept. 11 tragedy. The area south of Canal Street contains 65 individual landmarked buildings including Federal Hall and Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel and their cemeteries that sustained significant damage from the blast.

"Beyond the extraordinary toll on human life, the assault left historic buildings vulnerable, and technical assistance is urgently needed to assess the architectural integrity of surviving structures, to remove ash and pulverized building material from both interiors and exteriors, and to document the historic urban fabric," said WMF President Bonnie Burnham.

"It is important that historic preservation have a voice in the public dialogue regarding the restoration of lower Manhattan, a critical step in the healing process as the city rebuilds its sense of place."

The 2002 list released by WMF is designed to call attention to heritage sites that face immediate danger as a means of encouraging funding for repairs and restoration and spurring local governments to take an active role in protecting cultural icons in their regions. The list includes 42 places in Europe, 22 in the Americas, 20 in Asia, and 17 in Africa and the Middle East.

Although most of the sites represent a cultural heritage from the distant past, quite a few are 20th century buildings including a library in Vyborg, Russia, designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, Art Nouveau buildings in Tbilisi and several other cities in the Georgian Republic, and the Goodyear house in Old Westbury, N. Y., designed by Edward Durrell Stone, and the Schindler Kings house and studio in West Hollywood, Calif., designed by Rudolf Schindler.

The list also includes historic town centers, such as Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, largely destroyed in the recent Yugoslav conflict, and entire archaeological sites such as Mayan Yaxchilan in Mexico. It also calls attention to need for preservation work at such well-known medieval sites as Beauvais Cathedral and the Chateau de Chantilly, both in France, and of 18th century Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, England.

Also on the list for the first time is the Great Wall of China and its cultural landscape, which WMF reports as suffering from vandalism and the wear and tear of heavy tourism.

"Again the endangered sites program has turned up an astonishing array of cultural sites in peril that range in age from the Mnadjra tombs in Malta, dating from 3500 B.C. to the National Art Schools in Cuba, built in 1965," said John Stubbs, WMF vice president of programs.

"They also range in size from the diminutive Larabanga Mosque in Ghana to the Great Wall of china which is 3,900 miles in length, the largest construction project in history. We can only hope that our success rate in helping the sites on our new list will be as great as in past years."

The fund was established in 1965 and launched its World Monuments Watch List 30 years later. The list has played a pivotal role in raising funds for restoration of a major Constantin Brancusi-designed monument in Romania, Preah Khan Temple in the Angkor temple complex in Cambodia, the Tower of Belem in Portugal, and the Easter Island monuments site.

Other United States sites on the 2002 Watch List are San Esteban del Rey Mission at Acoma Pueblo, N.M., St. Ann and Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., and San Juan Capistrano Mission Church in California. A panel of experts made selection of these and other sites from a list of nominations made by governments around the world, U.S. embassies, international and local preservation groups, and preservation professionals.