Those are temporary while the site is still under major construction and Liberty St remains closed. In the years to come the streets (Fulton, Liberty, Greenwich etc) will all be open to the public and the Memorial will be a public space.Quote:
Originally Posted by mariab
It looks like the grass is being replaced already!
Either that ^ or they've opted to replace the lawn with asphalt ...
Attachment 15173
^Protective covering. A couple of weeks ago, there were signs reading that the grass was "closed" for the season, & would re-open in the spring. Maybe they just want to beef it up a bit before people start walking on it.
Looks like they've brought out the green paint since earlier this morning ...
Attachment 15175
Maybe they hired the former Mets groundkeeper?
speaking of which.. its opening day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okXhAC78d4Q
Sod it!
Attachment 15176
.
looks so pretty :eek::rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by lofter1
^Pavilion glass is too reflective. The one thing I found disappointing about this project.
World Trade Center Sphere: Future Unclear For Sculpture That Survived 9/11
By SAMANTHA GROSS
NEW YORK — The 45,000-pound sphere sculpture that emerged largely intact from the rubble of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11 attacks faces an uncertain future as officials prepare to remove it from the park where it has been on display for a decade.
"The Sphere," originally dedicated as a monument to world peace through trade, became an interim memorial in the months after 9/11. A year after the attacks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai and officials from about 90 foreign nations at its base to light an eternal flame.
Nearly a decade later, the eternal flame could possibly be snuffed out, and there is no permanent plan for the 25-foot-high structure made of bronze and steel. Officials said this week that it will be removed by the end of the month to make way for renovations to Battery Park, the green space that has been home to the sculpture.
Some family members of those killed have gathered thousands of signatures in an online petition urging officials to incorporate the sculpture into the 9/11 memorial and return it to the spot where it once stood as a centerpiece of a 5-acre plaza. Originally, Bloomberg said the battered globe would likely serve as a centerpiece for a permanent memorial, but ultimately it wasn't included in the plans.
Michael Burke, who lost his brother in the attacks and has been helping to lead the effort to get the sphere returned to the plaza, called the sculpture's exclusion a disgrace.
"It's the last remaining intact artifact of the trade center," he said Friday. "It represents the triumph of the values attacked, of peace and cooperation, over the terrorism, the hatred and intolerance that attacked."
As for the eternal flame, plans call for the gas line that feeds the fire to be turned off. But Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said the city is still evaluating what should be done.
"We're looking at a variety of options," she said in a statement.
Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which commissioned the statue in 1971, said that Battery Park had never been intended as a permanent home for it. The agency may place the sphere in an airport hangar where other World Trade Center artifacts are already being stored, he said.
"We are exploring options on where it will be located in the short term," Marsico said in a statement. "The short-term location will be used until a permanent home is identified."
Burke said the Port Authority had recently shared some renderings with him and other family members that depicted the possibility of placing the statue on Liberty Street, just across from the 9/11 Memorial. But he objected that the sculpture, now imbued with such history and significance, would not be prominently placed.
"It's not going to be part of the memorial experience," he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...l?ref=new-york
The northeast quadrant of the Memorial, in the open area north of the Memorial Pavilion, is one logical spot to place the Sphere. A second possible location would be the NW quadrant between the North Pool and West Street.
The Sphere in its current ravaged condition creates a terrific contrast to the perfectly designed and regimented Memorial Plaza, and would serve as a stark reminder of the horrific damage done that day.
Attachment 15257
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5751/memorial33c.jpg
If they remove two trees, there's an adequate open area (red) for the Sphere. Three would be better.
.
They could, but the ground is hollow beneath where the sphere would be, and I don't think it would be wise to place 45 tons on the memorial meant to hold a lot less. Removing the trees would probably void the design of the memorial and start another lawsuit we don't need(unfortunately unless Michael Arad is willing to change the design then it's not going to happen).Quote:
Originally Posted by ZippyTheChimp
OK, if it requires re-structuring the plaza then it won't ever happen.
Seems the same requirement of adequate structure would pertain to the site that's been discussed for the new Liberty Park above the VSC. Anyone know if that area is being structured to hold 45 tons?
Seems to me that the statue should have been placed either inside or near the memorial museum. It's a crime to put it in storage.
I think it's more like 20 tons. Still heavy, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by lofter1
Did the PA and the Memorial clear things up? They were pouring concrete on top of the pavilion.
I just discovered this blog via Twitter, which has already been posted on the WTC Tower One thread. This photo perhaps conveys the (now ill-conceived?) intent of the landscaped areas. Respectfully austere is one thing, but uninvitingly barren is another.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Co...otoblog900.jpg
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...w-of-manhattan
It looks different on the ground. They had to accomodate large numbers of people (heavy foot traffic) so putting in too much grass would have created maintenance problems over time. It definitely doesn't look barren at ground level, especially when the trees are in bloom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BStyles
They are going to be putting hundreds (thousands?) of tons of dirt and trees on there, and it's going to be strong enough to drive trucks on. In fact there is already a crane driving around up there, which must weigh at least 20-25 tons. I doubt another 40-50 tons makes a difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by lofter1
And the VSC will be even stronger, it needs to be blast-resistant. You could probably sit the Intrepid on there without bending anything :)
That mobile crane is sitting on top of some steel beams that they installed prior to the last concrete pour, which is probably displacing its weight.
On the space provided(which has not been driven on by trucks) thousands of tons of dirt are spread out around an 8 acre radius, not in one heap in the middle of the site. Something that's stationary, and planned to be permanent (and placed almost directly on the center of the arch in the PATH hall) doesn't accommodate for the weight, or the design. The VSC is being used as a reference, because it uses steel members that accommodate large loads.
I don't want to have to see the sphere being placed in the hangar with the rest of the WTC artifacts, but they're going to have to do a major overhaul of the design if they want to place it on the memorial park.
Away, but It’s Unclear Where
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...e1-custom1.jpg
David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
Darryl Poindexter of San Francisco photographed LaVerne Poindexter
and Jackie Dedrick in front of the “Sphere” on April 19.
For the last 10 years, Fritz Koenig’s 25-foot-high “Sphere for Plaza Fountain,” which survived the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings all around it, has been among the most public of memorials to 9/11. Hundreds of people see it daily in its prominent location at Battery Park, meaning that hundreds of thousands have taken the time to study its fissures and dents and scratches and bruises. It is an eloquent emblem of the city’s hours in the crucible and a symbol of its endurance.
Soon, however, the “Sphere” will be removed to accommodate a long-planned renovation of Battery Park. When exactly? Officials will not say. Where will it go? Officials will not say. When will it return? Officials will not say. Where will it be reinstalled? Officials will not say.
In other words, if you’d like to take one last look at the “Sphere,” you should hurry down to Battery Park at your earliest convenience. Or not.
The director of operations for the Battery Conservancy, Pat Kirshner, was quoted last month in a post by Julie Shapiro on DNAInfo.com as saying, “They have until April 30 to remove it.” The deadline has come and gone.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...e2-blog480.jpg
David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
“Sphere for Plaza Fountain” has been in Battery Park for 10 years.
The conservancy, which manages Battery Park and developed the master plan into which the “Sphere” does not fit, referred an inquiry to the Parks Department.
The Parks Department, which is financing and supervising the $16 million, 18-month renovation project, referred the inquiry to the mayor’s press office.
The press office of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who attended the installation of the “Sphere” as an interim memorial in March 2002, referred the inquiry to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the sculpture.
The Port Authority issued this statement through a spokesman, Steve Coleman: “We are continuing to explore options for a new temporary home for the Koenig ‘Sphere,’ where it will reside once we move it from Battery Park.” Period.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...icleInline.jpg
David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
Damage sustained on 9/11 is clearly visible.
Among the Port Authority’s options is moving the 22.5-ton bronze to Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport. That is where many large-scale artifacts of 9/11 have been stored. The problem is that Hangar 17 is far from ground zero and off-limits to the public.
Perhaps the government is keeping quiet because it is too embarrassed to acknowledge that it hasn’t figured out in 10 years what to do with the “Sphere” and is instead scrambling to make arrangements at the last possible moment. It is no easy to task to pinpoint a plaza or sidewalk that could safely accommodate the mass and the weight of the sculpture.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...e5-blog480.jpg
Beth A. Keiser/Associated Press
Fritz Koenig with his sculpture on March 11, 2002, six months after 9/11,
when the “Sphere” was dedicated in Battery Park as a temporary memorial.
Among the more outspoken champions of the “Sphere” is Michael Burke, the brother of Capt. William F. Burke Jr. of Engine Company 21, who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. He wants the “Sphere” returned to the trade center plaza, squarely in the midst of the 9/11 Memorial. His petition to that effect, Save the W.T.C. Sphere, has collected more than 7,200 signatures. But the notion of bringing the “Sphere” back was long ago rejected by the memorial foundation, controlled by Mr. Bloomberg.
“This is a denial of history,” Mr. Burke said in his petition. “America has no more vital historical artifact than the W.T.C. ‘Sphere.’”
In an interview on Thursday, he elaborated. “You should have a 9/11 experience when you’re standing on the site of the attacks,” Mr. Burke said. The “Sphere,” he said, is “not just a symbol of grief and terror,” he said, but also “a monument to world peace and cooperation” — as Mr. Koenig intended.
“I hope they treat it with dignity and respect,” Mr. Burke said. “But hope is a difficult word at ground zero.”
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...e4-custom1.jpg
David W. Dunlap/The New York Times
A photo opportunity on Thursday morning, with 1 World Trade Center in the distance.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...unclear-where/
From the 90th floor of One World Trade Center.
http://i.minus.com/i0GiEVSmZFYsW.jpg
http://i.minus.com/i0GiEVSmZFYsW.jpg
Great photo!
Attachment 15433
Attachment 15434
Attachment 15435
Taken by me Wednesday from Greenwich St
^2nd one looks like a CGI movie! :D
I agree 100% with Mr Burke. The Sphere should be front and center on the grounds of the WTC Memorial. It is very powerful.
Memorial Shares Construction and Cultural Updates
http://www.lowermanhattan.info/image...morial_160.jpg WTC Memorial and Museum completion dates have yet to be determined It has welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors since its September 2011 opening, but construction progress at the National 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Centerremains slow during the past several months due to ongoing funding negotiations with the Port Authority. However, while thousands of visitors head to the open-air plaza daily, officials continue planning the exact stages of full completion for the Memorial, as well as its underground Museum and entrance pavilion.Community Board 1 (CB1) heard the latest update this week, as presented by Joe Daniels, Memorial president and CEO. Daniels explained that his team is working with the future WTC Performing Arts Center, which recently welcomed Maggie Boepple as its boards senior adviser. Calling the WTC Memorial and Museum and the PAC "parallel cultural institutions," Daniels noted that the latters newly formed board has hosted two meetings, and is now setting up its governing structure and other development details.Also at the meeting, CB1 and public members expressed concern about the future location of "Great Spherical Caryatid" -- also known as the sphere -- Fritz Koenigs 25-foot-tall bronze sculpture that stood at the foot of the twin towers for 30 years. The sphere was damaged on 9/11, but recovered in one piece and moved to a temporary memorial site in Battery Park. However, with construction beginning at Battery Park this summer, the sphere is expected to be relocated soon.Advocates are asking rebuilding officials to consider returning the sphere to the WTC site, and they cite the support of nearly 10,000 signatures gathered thus far in an online petition. Daniels explained that the Memorial site would not be able to incorporate the sphere into its own spaces, and that his team also is waiting to hear about the spheres fate from the Port Authority.
Approximately 75 percent of the 6.5-acre Memorial site is now open daily to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Port Authority, which owns the WTC site, had projected that by September 11, 2012, the Museum would likely be at least partially open to the public. However, funding limitations slowed construction on the underground Museum after the Memorial plaza opened on September 11, 2011."The negotiations over resolving the impasse are proceeding very intensively and we feel very good about the progress thats been made to date," said Daniels. "We dont have a final resolution yet. Theres been a real commitment from the Port Authority, from the city and from the Memorial to get this impasse resolved -- its not quite there yet, but people are working hard to make sure it happens."As soon as a deal is reached and we can get the construction fully restarted and re-engaged, I think the next important step is to have a schedule for all the key elements including the finishing of the Memorial as well as the Museum," he said. "We will absolutely keep the community board posted with the details of a new schedule."The Memorial team also continues to plan for educational programming at the future Museum, as well as for how the commemoration events on September 11, 2012 will go. New renderings of the interior spaces also have been added to the Memorial website, including the "We Remember" exhibit that will be located at the sites entry ramp.Daniels noted that the advance-reservation system continues to work well for thousands of daily visitors (visit www.911memorial.org for details). And along with the city Department of Transportation, the Memorial team encourages tourists to visit via mass transit -- an effort that has helped minimize tour-bus traffic to the area.
They make it sound so cordial and pleasant, when we already know that it's a bitter fight about who owes how much money to whom.
The stuff of court dockets.
The interior renderings of the Museum seen on the Memorial website look so antiseptic and corporate. It doesn't appear that they're taking advantage of the volume of space available.
There should be an area that evokes the scene in the immediate aftermath. Something akin to what's found inside the Holocaust Museum in Washington, but not so curated and organized. Some experience of the chaos and destruction should be the goal.
In regard to making use of the interior space, the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem (seen below) is a simple but strong piece of architectural remembrance; an evocation of the height of the towers and the lives lost would be appropriate here:
http://blogs.voanews.com/photos/file...12-878x585.jpg
There are a few spaces in the museum that allow for this. It's under wraps, and apparently only for the families and friends of the victims, while the more museum atmosphere is available for the general public, and tourists.
It could also be as simplistic as the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C. The name plaques around the pools similarly accomplish that.
That same museum has a pit with a glass floor filled with the shoes of the victims. In DC, it's a room with a glass wall with the same thing. They could do something like that.Quote:
Some experience of the chaos and destruction should be the goal.
Maybe it's something they will continually add to as the years pass, and family members gradually give up mementos that they can't hang on to anymore, but are unwilling to throw away.
Well, I've been in the Museum and I think the use of space is quite overwhelming. I think the scale brings back a similar sense of awe that I had when I stood at the base of the towers. Touching the baseplate of the columns is very powerful.
The area dedicated to the history, the day and the aftermath will again be very strong and some of the exhibits will be age restricted due to their nature.
I came away astonished by the space and the concepts.
^How will they manage age-restricted areas? If children are allowed in the pavillion, and even certain parts of the lower level, won't it be harder to restrict where they go?
Age-restriction should be decided by parents. An advisory similar to those before certain TV programs would be sufficient.
Well, you know how that will go. Little Johnny will wander into the wrong place and then there will be an uproar.
I think there would be an uproar if the museum didn't have a highly emotional aspect to it. The warnings or indications to visitors about the nature of some of the exhibits will be necessary but unsurprising.Quote:
Originally Posted by stache
Interestingly, I think a big issue will be access to the Museum. Right now I believe the plan is for the museum to be separate from the memorial. Visitors to the memorial will not automatically get entrance to the museum, they will have to go through a separate security procedure and enter via a different route to the museum. I think this is why you won't see the final part of the memorial plaza open as they will need that space for lines into the museum.
You will have to line up twice to do both the memorial and the museum. Also a big issue will be numbers - visitors to the museum will stay much longer than they do on the plaza and there will be a restricted number allowed into the museum at any one time, could make for long lines and some big frustrations. The mathematics behind making this all work on a construction site get much more complex as the museum comes on stream.
The museum is so far behind schedule now, I'd bet it will be 2015 or more before it opens (no matter what they say now, that place will need all sorts of final approvals from DOB, NYPD, etc. before the public is allowed in).
The museum is becoming a Dinosaur
Not only that, but the plaza itself is still less than half complete when you take into account all of the sides being blocked off as well as the path hall roof incompletion. How long until we see that all materialize?
It seems that the money feud between the memorial and the PA has done more than stop the construction of the pavilion.
3,000 families must be gutted
Having seen it recently, the museum is in a state of abandon...everything is covered in an inch of grey dust and debris giving the place an eerie, empty look. Everything remains wrapped in protective plastic etc but the thing is a mess. Nothing is happening.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherpa
That is one fascinating, first hand, report. This thing is going to take some time & patience - so glad to have WNY to keep us upto date.Quote:
Originally Posted by IrishInNYC
Sure glad I donated to these fools! :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by IrishInNYC