NEW YORK, July 22 (UPI) -- The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. assured New Yorkers Monday it would take its designs for rebuilding on the site of the destroyed World Trade Center back to the drawing board, after thousands of city residents including relatives of the Sept. 11 victims gave their existing six proposals a humiliating panning.
"Obviously we now have to re-examine everything, there's lots of opportunities," said Alex Graven, a planner with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
The LMDC also said that the schedule to have six plans pared down to three by September and a final plan by December, might be pushed back by several months.
"We've heard all sorts of ideas, and I'm sure there will be more ideas in the future, and when you see the next set of schemes they will be different from what you see today," Graven said.
The agency charged with the rebuilding of the 16-acre site where the Twin Towers stood until they were destroyed by suicide hijackers on Sept. 11 last year, released six preliminary plans a week ago to almost universally unfavorable reactions.
"Pathetic," said radio talk show host Andy Martin, who held a nationwide radio/Internet news conference about the rebuilding.
"The terrorists win if any of these timid buildings are built -- these are six weenie proposals with buildings that reflect fear, not confidence, and that reflect a massive psychological victory for the terrorists."
At a hearing Monday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan about 200 people echoed the feelings of the more than 4,000 people who attended a similar hearing at the convention center Saturday:
-- Most did not want anything built on the footprint of the 110-story Twin Towers.
-- Most wanted a significant memorial designed first.
-- Most wanted buildings that were visibly interesting and that would make a mark on the Manhattan skyline.
-- Most wanted West Street to be put underground to minimize traffic, reconnect neighborhoods and provide easier access to the waterfront.
There was overwhelmingly agreement that the six proposals contained too much office space, were too crowed together, were too dense and that there was too little housing and cultural space.
Using electronic voting the participants at the hearings, sponsored by the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York City -- a coalition of 85 civic, environmental, community and labor groups, voted on the proposals and on what they liked and disliked.
More than 70 percent of the participants said the proposals were not ambitious enough and they wanted the entire site to contribute to a striking and bold memorial.
There was overwhelming agreement on the mission statement of the memorial as read by a family members of one of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: "The memorial should honor those who died, and those who carried on, as well as the brave people from around the world who joined the rescue efforts."
However, not all agreed.
"I don't agree that the footprint of the Twin Towers should not be built on, because we do not have to wallow in out victimhood, that would be a terrible message to the terrorists," said Dan Lynch, a radio talk show host in Albany, N.Y. and former managing editor of the Albany Times Union.
"There should be a memorial but it should not be dictated by those who lost family members at the World Trade Center -- many would like to see 111-story towers built there."
According to the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown, 9 percent of the hearing participants were family members of victims, 20 percent were survivors, 24 percent lived in Lower Manhattan, 34 percent were at or near Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 22 percent were displaced or unemployed by the attacks and 6 percent were rescuers -- 53 percent of the participants were female, 47 were male and most were in higher income brackets.
The six proposals all had several 60 to 80-story buildings, many had a separate tower and all had a plaza or park. Most returned to the city grid of streets, as opposed to the large irregular plot of land on which the Twin Towers once stood.
As a result of the hearings, housing is being considered for the 16-acre site although the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land, is not allowed to engage in residential development.
The Port Authority had said it must replace all of the 11 million square feet of office space contained in the Twin Towers and the 600,000 square feet of retail space in the six floors underground, because of the insurance policy held by the building's lessor, Larry Silverstein.
However, at the hearings, Frank Lombardi, the authority's chief engineer said that in response to criticism of the six proposals and the desire for a 24-hour community that included housing and cultural space the agency was looking at renegotiating the amount of office space that will be rebuilt on the site.
Weeks before the terrorist attacks, the Port Authority reached a deal with Silverstein Properties and Westfield America, which agreed to lease the towers and other authority-owned facilities for $3.2 billion over 99 years, with $616 million paid upfront.
If the all the office space were rebuilt, the Port Authority would receive $120 million a year.
The federal government will pay for infrastructure of roads and transportation near the site, but the cost of rebuilding the office space will come from the insurance payment that Silverstein will receive.
Another hearing is scheduled for August.
--
(Reported by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
