Group wants 9/11 WTC stairway preserved

NEW YORK, May 10 (UPI) -- A historic preservation group warns the last remaining above-ground piece of the World Trade Center in New York is being threatened by construction work.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Wednesday the staircase where hundreds fled the burning north tower on Sept. 11, 2001, deserves to be incorporated into the new office tower to be built on the site.

It was one of 11 sites across the United States deemed important to preserve, along with districts in hurricane ravaged New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast and a 1950s-era resort motels, thought to be the largest of its kind.

The New York Times reports neither designer Norman Foster nor developer Larry A. Silverstein has said if they will keep the staircase.

Trust President Richard Moe called the staircase "the most dramatic original piece of the site that will have meaning to generations to come."

The National Trust for Historic Preservation doesn't have any regulatory power but is considered influential.