Battle Over The World Trade Center Site a Clash of Commerce, Politics and Ego, Reports FORTUNE; Despite Unveiling of ''Freedom Tower'', the Battle Continues.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2004 The struggle surrounding the Freedom Tower, the first skyscraper skyscraper, modern building of great height, constructed on a steel skeleton. The form originated in the United States. Development of the Form Many mechanical and structural developments in the last quarter of the 19th cent. to rise at ground zero, is far from over, despite a recently unveiled design born of the collaboration between architects David Childs David M. Childs (born 1941 Princeton, New Jersey) is the Consulting Design Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who has projects all over the world and now is designing the Freedom Tower in New York. and Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12, 1946 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish-born Jewish American architect, who has designed many prominent and celebrated buildings, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the Denver Art Museum in the United States, the Imperial War Museum , reports FORTUNE Magazine in a story appearing in the January 26 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands January 19 and at www.fortune.com on January 13. Before and after the recent unveiling of the "Freedom Tower," FORTUNE interviewed Governor George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (born June 24, 1945) is an American politician who was the 57th Governor of New York serving from January 1995 until January 1, 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party and was seen as a possible 2000 and 2008 Presidential candidate. and developer Larry Silverstein Larry A. Silverstein (born 1932 in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York) is an American billionaire real estate investor and operator and the head of Silverstein Properties, a real estate development group. and dozens of other people involved in the project. What emerged, says FORTUNE's Devin Leonard, is a story about commerce colliding with politics over the most emotionally-charged real estate project in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City's history. The primary combatants behind the rebuilding of the World Trade Center are Silverstein, who is financing the skyscraper, and Pataki, who wields vast influence over the project because it will be constructed on government land. For Silverstein, the new tower must attract tenants - hordes of them. For Pataki, ground zero is an important political symbol - filled with both potential minefields and political opportunity. Silverstein selected architect David Childs for his extensive experience. Pataki, seeking to mollify mol·li·fy tr.v. mol·li·fied, mol·li·fy·ing, mol·li·fies 1. To calm in temper or feeling; soothe. See Synonyms at pacify. 2. To lessen in intensity; temper. 3. families of September 11 victims, then forced Childs to collaborate with architect Daniel Libeskind. "With such radically different visions for ground zero, it was inevitable that the governor and the developer would clash. What was less predictable was that they would do so using cat's paws: their architects," says Leonard. All Libeskind had been hired to do was handle the site plan --not design the tower. And yet, reports Leonard, some relatives of September 11 victims didn't like the idea that Libeskind might be cast aside--and neither did Pataki, who forced Childs to take on Libeskind as a "collaborating agent." As Childs' design took shape, Libeskind complained that it was not consistent with his "vision." He didn't have veto power, but refused to sign off on it. The recently unveiled design, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Leonard, is a compromise between the two architects--but it will almost certainly change. Childs is lobbying to restore much of his original plan, and Libeskind talks as if "dark forces" are at work thwarting his vision. Libeskind is still fighting, concludes Leonard, partly because Pataki is letting him. "But if he and everyone else just relaxed a little, the site might actually get the tower it deserves." |
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