Pataki Wants Downtown Rebuilt Fast

[JMGarcia]

I'll agree with you on that point Stern. But who's to say it wasn't Bloomberg that pushed him or some aid on the LMDC he trusted who happened to be in the minority.

It was not like the LMDC was overwhelmingly in favor of THINK.

In any case, Libeskind was the first design I saw, official or otherwise, that I found that I would be proud to have in NY. Foster was 2nd and I would have fully supported his if I thought that it had any chance to be selected. I could have lived with THINK in its original incarnation but the modified version was not an improvement, where as Libeskinds was.

So, I guess I can say that Pataki has done a good job as I am happy with the outcome. I just think he could have handled it better.

Let's see what he has to say on Thursday and how quickly things actually get moving. The transportation issue especially is still way behind schedule IMO. If he only now announces a "study" on the issue then I've got to ask myself what he's been doing the past year and a half. Its not like this is a new idea.

[dbhstockton]

Pataki wants the signature tower completed by 2006. *Guess what happens in 2006.

Pataki To Lay Out Timetable For Rebuilding

(New York-WABC, April 24, 2003) — Today, Governor Pataki will answer the question that many have wondered, when will construction begin at Ground Zero? He will talk about reconstruction later today in a speech at Lower Manhattan, and say that the reconstruction is the next, and very necessary step in the war on terror.

Among the first to get underway is the centerpiece of reconstruction which is a soaring 17-hundred foot tower. Daniel Libeskind's vision was the winning design for the Trade Center Site. The soaring angular design includes a spire that would create the tallest building in the world. The design was the winner among a pool of nine proposals.

Also in the governor's plan:
*A transportation HUB joining Lower Manhattan subway lines and the Path train.
*A memorial to the victims of September 11th.
*$50 million dollars in street and roadway improvements.

Sources say the governor wants the projects completed, or at least substantially under way by the end of his current term, December 2006.

Largely, Pataki is responding to business interests.

Reportedly, many complained that the construction around the Trade Center site has made downtown unpleasant. Also, there were concerns over the governor and mayor's rivalry over the winning design for the WTC site, and, control of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

[OKoranjes]

I am just happy that the newest version of THINK's design wasn't chosen. *

[TonyO]

Governor's office in NY is moving to the WTC site. *(!) *Good. *Daring plans though? *Hardly.

[dbhstockton]

From the NY Observer:

"Recent weeks have seemed like an apotheosis of sorts in the struggle between the city and the state over control of lower Manhattan, with Mr. Pataki’s presentation the coup de grâce. "

Here's the arcticle (It's long):

Pataki Grabs Center Stage As Zero Nero

by Tom McGeveran


Governor George Pataki wants you to know that he, not Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is in charge at Ground Zero.

City Hall was blindsided recently with the revelation that Mr. Pataki is preparing an exhaustive presentation on the redevelopment of Ground Zero—even as the Bloomberg administration worked behind the scenes and in public to secure a more powerful position in the redevelopment process.

Details about the presentation, which will be made at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York on April 24, were leaked to The New York Times and reported in an April 22 article. The presentation is expected to establish a timetable for key elements of the redevelopment process, including the restoration of the skyline of lower Manhattan, the development of a massive transit hub and the completion of a memorial—all before Mr. Pataki’s third (and presumably last) term ends in December 2006.

The move represents a shift for the Pataki administration. The Governor and his allies had been content to remain behind the scenes at Ground Zero, especially when the rebuilding process was faltering in the late months of the Governor’s re-election campaign last year. Mr. Pataki allowed the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a city-state agency, to take the lumps from the press and public—first on the pace of the redevelopment process, and later on a series of uninspired (and ultimately rejected) designs for the site that were released in July 2002.

According to rebuilding officials, Mr. Pataki will present a plan to complete the construction of Daniel Libes-kind’s 1,776-foot spire at the northwest corner of the site before he leaves office in 2006. The Governor’s plan seeks to barrel over a series of roadblocks, including a dispute over insurance proceeds from the destruction of the Twin Towers; the ravaged commercial real-estate market in lower Manhattan; and public questions about the advisability of building the world’s tallest tower on a site that terrorists targeted as a symbol of American economic might.

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg administration is struggling to assert its influence at the site by continuing to negotiate a land-swap deal with the Port Authority that would put the city in control of the rebuilding effort. In addition, City Hall has been touting redevelopment efforts that are less under the state’s control, such as the establishment of a residential neighborhood on the waterfront below the Brooklyn Bridge, and the establishment of a cultural infrastructure in lower Manhattan that would improve tourism by better linking the area’s many disjointed points of interest.

The Pataki initiative comes in the wake of warnings by the business community that lower Manhattan will see a continued drain in corporate investment if some short-term fixes aren’t soon in place.

"The short-term issues basically have to do with traffic patterns and accessibility downtown, and making sure that construction and security measures don’t so tie up the streets and the pedestrian walkways that it makes it difficult to conduct business," said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New YorkCity, which drafted a memo to city and state officials outlining the complaints. "This has been a problem. It’s been identified lately as an increasing frustration for downtown businesses, and it appears that both the Governor and the Mayor are taking it seriously."

Site Control

Recent weeks have seemed like an apotheosis of sorts in the struggle between the city and the state over control of lower Manhattan, with Mr. Pataki’s presentation the coup de grâce. City officials said that by April 18, the Mayor had discussed the presentation with Mr. Pataki, and as of April 22, there were plans for further discussion between the Mayor and the Governor before the speech was to be delivered.

But the fact remains that the issues Mr. Pataki planned to address in his presentation were sorted out before the Bloomberg administration had any knowledge of his plans.

Moreover, the recent resignation of LMDC vice president of planning Alexander Garvin, a close associate of Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, has been interpreted as a weakening of the city’s influence over planning at Ground Zero.

LMDC sources cited personality clashes between Mr. Garvin and the rest of the rebuilding agency as the major reason for his resignation. Particular emphasis was laid on a New Yorker article in January by Paul Goldberger that seemed to give Mr. Garvin, and not the Pataki administration, credit for key elements of the redevelopment process.

Others said it was Mr. Garvin’s connection to the city that made his position untenable.

"He was a dysfunctional part of the process," one source said. "He was reporting almost directly to Doctoroff."

Mr. Doctoroff, who hired Mr. Garvin as the architect of his 2012 Olympics plan for New York City, brushed off suggestions that the city’s influence in the LMDC was imperiled by Mr. Garvin’s exit, and pointed out that Andrew Winters, his likely successor, had also worked under Mr. Garvin on the 2012 plan.

"Alex just brings a breadth of experience and creativity that very few people anywhere have, so I think it’s a loss," Mr. Doctoroff said. "But in terms of the city’s input, I have an extraordinary relationship with Andrew. So I wouldn’t overinterpret that."

The city has also suffered a blow with the appointment of Kevin Rampe, a former Pataki aide, to the position of interim president of the LMDC. Talk of the imminent restructuring of the organization, with city-approved candidates taking key roles in the leadership of the agency, seemed to falter when the Governor again named one of his own to head the organization.

With Mr. Pataki’s coming bells-and-whistles presentation, he will also be able to advance significantly—and, potentially, take credit for—many of the elements of Mr. Bloomberg’s own proposal for lower Manhattan.

Mr. Pataki is expected, for instance, to announce a significant financial commitment for studying the prospect of a direct rail link from the Long Island Railroad and the city’s two airports to the transit hub at Ground Zero—a plan that met serious opposition through most of last year from Mr. Pataki’s own Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but which the Mayor promoted in his Dec. 12, 2002, presentation to the same civic group that Mr. Pataki is scheduled to address on April 24.

According to rebuilding officials, the rail link is now at the top of the transportation agenda. It remains to be seen whether the link will take the form of a plan by Brookfield Properties to use existing rail tunnels beneath the East River for a super-shuttle to lower Manhattan from the airports. An alternative plan calls for construction of a new tunnel for the service. Funding from the LMDC will go toward making that determination, with a definite deadline for the completion of a study and for the procurement of funds to build the link.

In that instance as in others, Mr. Pataki will appear to be offering New Yorkers the most concrete and specific plans for rebuilding Ground Zero and lower Manhattan to date—something the LMDC, the Port Authority and City Hall have not been able to do.

Governor’s Architect

At the Governor’s right hand is a relative newcomer in the rebuilding effort, Studio Daniel Libeskind. The firm began its work amid announcements from the Port Authority that its own planner and transit consultant, Stanton Eckstut, was being let go. The recent news of the resignation of the LMDC’s chief planner only underscores the point: Mr. Libeskind is now, in essence, the chief planner and architect for the new World Trade Center.

According to sources close to the situation, Mr. Libeskind is also taking a profoundly expanded role in the redevelopment process.

"There has been skepticism over the last several months about the role Daniel would play at Ground Zero," said LMDC spokesman Matthew Higgins. "And we’ve gone a long way to assure people that he will be intimately involved in all elements of the redevelopment process at the site."

Mr. Libeskind was loath to attribute his importance in the redevelopment process to any personal favor with the Governor, insisting that the city, the Port Authority and the LMDC were all his clients.

"A consensus will have to be reached," he said by phone from Toronto, where he sometimes teaches. "But things are getting clearer, and I think it’s true: It’s very different now than it was three months ago or two months ago, because people are focusing on setting up a timeline for getting things done."

Mr. Pataki personally supported his plan for Ground Zero, and even used his power as Governor to override the nomination of Mr. Libeskind’s competitor, the THINK team headed by New York architect Rafael Viñoly, by the LMDC committee responsible for choosing the winner of the design competition.

In the final hours of the competition, Mr. Pataki was said to have reacted to the THINK plan with a "death chill."

When the Libeskind plan was selected, it was unclear what the spoils would be for the winner of the design competition. At various points during the competition, rebuilding officials said that the plans were only guidelines or possibilities for future development. The ambivalence about how to make use of the plans submitted in the competition was strong enough that the LMDC required the competitors to relinquish any rights to their designs once they were submitted—suggesting that even the determination of a single design wouldn’t guarantee a place in the rebuilding effort for the designer.

Once his team was selected, however, Mr. Libeskind—whose avant-garde designs for the site were met with skeptical smirks from those who doubted the real-estate community would support his angled, cut-up vision—began to develop a close relationship with the Governor.

Mr. Pataki is as known for his tendency to delegate massive responsibilities to trusted deputies as he is for taking a sometimes quirky personal interest in individual elements of their efforts.

Over a series of private dinners and meetings since Mr. Libeskind’s design was selected, the architect has met personally and privately with the Governor to discuss his ideas about the site, rebuilding officials said. And in a bid to ensure that the lower Manhattan skyline is restored to its former glory before he leaves office, Mr. Pataki is expected to announce a timetable for the building of Mr. Libeskind’s tower that would provide for its completion in the next three to four years.

This likely means that spadework would begin much sooner than anticipated, especially in light of the fact that Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder on the commercial portion of the destroyed Twin Towers, is still fighting his insurers to get the highest possible payout—money that he has argued is the only private source of rebuilding funds.

Some $1 billion in insurance proceeds have already been secured, which could—after negotiations with Mr. Silverstein’s lenders—be used to fund a part of the construction of Mr. Libeskind’s tower, a city official said.

But rebuilding authorities said the more likely scenario would be the Port Authority floating a bond to finance construction of the tower even before a settlement was secured, and recouping its money from the insurance proceeds and the leasing of the tower later on.

Conventional Wisdom

Such aggressive measures essentially scrap the conventional wisdom of development at Ground Zero: that until it’s clear who will control the lease on the new building, who will inhabit it and who will pay for its development, nothing can be built at the site. Mr. Pataki’s plan is a sort of building by gubernatorial fiat—and Mr. Libes-kind’s spire will be the result.

Mr. Libeskind has also persuaded the Port Authority and the LMDC that he has (or can marshal) the resources to build the massive Ground Zero gateway to the planned downtown transit hub; to determine the placement and design of the retail concourses above and below ground on the site; to orchestrate the building of the "interpretive museum" on the site that serves as a firewall between the site’s memorial uses and its commercial and retail elements; and to plan the public spaces included in his design. Mr. Pataki is expected to announce that many of those elements will be completed by the end of 2006.

Mr. Libeskind’s contract with the Port Authority to build the transit hub are in the final negotiation stages, an agency spokesperson said. According to one source, the Port Authority was impressed with Mr. Libeskind’s design because it works regardless of how city, state and federal authorities handle West Street, the bustling highway that previously cut off Battery Park City from the rest of lower Manhattan. Whether the highway might be sunk to create a level field to connect the new World Trade Center to Battery Park City, or whether pedestrian crossings would be improved with a large deck built over the highway, remains a political hot potato with local residents and planners. Because the World Financial Center is meant to connect to the massive retail concourse stretching east to the Ground Zero transit hub, and further to the newly developed Fulton Street subway station currently under examination by the M.T.A., how West Street is handled effects the development of the transit and retail infrastructure at Ground Zero. What’s more, Mr. Libeskind’s planned transit hub is capable of supporting a link to the direct airport-access plan under consideration by state officials.

As for the Museum of Freedom proposed by Mr. Libeskind—a building shaped like a bird fanning its wings over the sunken memorial in the southwest quadrant of the site, in effect shielding it from the commercial, retail and street-level uses above—American Express has already stepped forward as a potential funder for the building. According to rebuilding officials, the LMDC was swamped with cultural institutions eager to relocate to Ground Zero shortly after the terrorist attack, but the issue was put on the back burner. Now the agency is aggressively pursuing such institutions as the New-York Historical Society and the Museum of the City of New York to determine who could best administer an "interpretive museum" on the order of the one presented by Mr. Libeskind in his plan.

Meanwhile, the architect and his wife and business partner, Nina, continue to live out of suitcases at the Four Seasons hotel in midtown, though they are close to a deal on an office space flanking Ground Zero that their firm would occupy as soon as May 1. Mr. Libeskind’s search for an apartment in Tribeca or the financial district continues, he said.

"We are very exhilarated," said Mr. Libeskind of his company, "and we are working very, very hard."

You may reach Tom McGeveran via email at: tmcgeveran@observer.com.

This column ran on page 1 in the 4/28/2003 edition of The New York Observer.

[JMGarcia]

Pataki Calls For Agressive Rebuilding Of WTC


APRIL 24TH, 2003
NY1

Governor George Pataki Thursday unveiled an agressive timetable for rebuilding the World Trade Center.

Pataki said one of the first projects to get underway will be the 1,776-foot signature tower designed by Daniel Libeskind, calling it the "Freedom Tower" and saying the governor's office would be the first tenant.

In the address to the Association for a Better New York, the governor also announced details for construction of a Downtown transportation hub connecting subway lines and PATH trains, proposing a link to Kennedy Airport and the Long Island Rail Road as well.

He also announced a number of short-term projects to improve the quality of life for Downtown businesses and residents.

Pataki said he wants the projects at the World Trade Center site close to completion by the end of his term, in 2006.

From NY Newsday

Saying the rebuilding of lower Manhattan had to be bold, daring and swift, Gov. George Pataki today set an ambitious timetable for the area's redevelopment -- including a pledge that the new 1,776-foot Freedom Tower will be completed at the Wold Trade Center site by Sept. 11, 2006.


(Edited by JMGarcia at 1:31 pm on April 24, 2003)

[JMGarcia]

That NY Observer article is one of the more hopeful things I've read lately. I like how Pataki is finally taking control of things and cutting through the usual NY developement morass.



Meanwhile, the Bloomberg administration is struggling to assert its influence at the site by continuing to negotiate a land-swap deal with the Port Authority that would put the city in control of the rebuilding effort.

Pataki would of course have to agree to such a swap being the head of the PA (at least 1/2 head) and this seems increasingly unlikely. Good, because the swap is a bad idea.



At the Governor’s right hand is a relative newcomer in the rebuilding effort, Studio Daniel Libeskind. The firm began its work amid announcements from the Port Authority that its own planner and transit consultant, Stanton Eckstut, was being let go. The recent news of the resignation of the LMDC’s chief planner only underscores the point: Mr. Libeskind is now, in essence, the chief planner and architect for the new World Trade Center.

This is the best news of all. Libeskind is not afraid of height, has the politically savvy to get his vision implemented and determination not to buckle under to *special interest groups or overly cautious business interests. I think ultimately he sees the people of NY as his clients.




But rebuilding authorities said the more likely scenario would be the Port Authority floating a bond to finance construction of the tower even before a settlement was secured, and recouping its money from the insurance proceeds and the leasing of the tower later on.

Silverstein has been officially pre-empted as the leading voice in the design of the signature "Freedom Tower". It will be interesting how he reacts. If he really wants to build something different to "Dan's sketches" its going to have to have overwhelming public appeal. Even if it does, I don't doubt Libeskind's ability to readjust his design to counter.



Mr. Libeskind has also persuaded the Port Authority and the LMDC that he has (or can marshal) the resources to build the massive Ground Zero gateway to the planned downtown transit hub; to determine the placement and design of the retail concourses above and below ground on the site; to orchestrate the building of the "interpretive museum" on the site that serves as a firewall between the site’s memorial uses and its commercial and retail elements; and to plan the public spaces included in his design. Mr. Pataki is expected to announce that many of those elements will be completed by the end of 2006.

Further confidence in Libeskind's abilities. Ultimately, it is the flexibility of his designs that are winning over the LMDC and PA.



As for the Museum of Freedom proposed by Mr. Libeskind—a building shaped like a bird fanning its wings over the sunken memorial in the southwest quadrant of the site, in effect shielding it from the commercial, retail and street-level uses above—American Express has already stepped forward as a potential funder for the building.

I always wondered who would end up paying for the museum.

[Fabb]

This timetable is realistic.
Good news.

[billyblancoNYC]

Well, it's about friggin' time. Man, Amex, Merril, Goldman, AIG and the DT financial crew must have really applied the pressure to the guvnah. *It's about time, damnit. *Now, it's only a matter of actually making it happen.

Related news: *Silverstein's hired enginerring firm said it was 2 events. If this is the case, there's an extra $3.5 BILLION to play with. *That'll build a few towers, baby!

[NYguy]

New Yorkers would "reclaim their skyline" by the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack, Pataki predicted. "By Sept. 11, 2006, we will top off the new icon, the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower."

Pataki, however, added that the building wouldn't be ready for tenants for another two years from completion of the tower.

"For all who come here, they will witness the tower and our determination to overcome evil," he said, adding that he had authorized the move from the governor's current New York City address at 633 Third Ave. to the Freedom Tower when it is ready for tenants

I'm really surprised that the governor has showed some backbone on this one, but its good news to hear. *I wonder what the implications will be on other projects, such as the broadcast tower...

[NYguy]

Other progress for Downtown....(Newsday)


Short-Term Initiatives

- The governor said a new enclosed bridge over West Street, near Vescey Street, would be completed by November to coincide with the opening of the temporary PATH station.

- He said the Liberty Street walkway and bridge would be upgraded, linking the World Financial Center to the rest of Lower Manhattan.

- The governor promised continued support for the Downtown Alliance's program to beautify Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall. The plan includes improvements such as the installation of granite curbs, new lighting and the addition of granite strips noting each ticker tape parade that has been held in the "Canyon of Champions."

- Pataki said that a new Greenmarket would open this summer at Broadway and Liberty Park Plaza.

- The black shroud which still covers the Deutsche Bank building next to Ground Zero will be replaced with a mural to lessen the "blight" it brings to the area, he said.

- The governor asked the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. for $3 million toward the completion of the Millennium High School, which is slated to open in September for 250 ninth and 10th graders.

- He also said he wanted the LMDC to use $10 million to upgrade public spaces in Lower Manhattan, including those in Chinatown and Tribeca.

- As part of an effort to help businesses, the governor said the Empire State Development Corp. planned a new $7 million "I Love New York" campaign that would market Lower Manhattan to domestic and international audiences.

The Transportation Hub

--The governor said the transportation complex, for which the federal government has already earmarked $4.5 billion, will get underway immediately.

-- The heart of the complex will be a new PATH terminal, which will open up onto the large square included in Libeskind's plan, Pataki said. It will have longer platforms and will be connected by an underground passageway to a new subway center at Fulton Street.

-- At Fulton Street, the governor said, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would "untangle nine subway lines" that serve Lower Manhattan, add more station entrances and include the underground walkway that will lead to the PATH terminal and continue on to the World Financial Center.

-- Pataki said he had asked the LMDC, the Port Authority and the MTA to begin a study on linking Lower Manhattan to Long Island and Kennedy Airport by direct rail. He said a plan would be chosen within a year.

-- In the interim, fast ferry service would be considered as an option to connect downtown to the airports, he said. Ferry service to La Guardia Airport would hopefully be in place by late 2004 and that service to JFK's Air Train would be available by 2005, the governor said.

[NYatKNIGHT]

I'm not sure if it's backbone as much as re-election on Pataki's mind, but getting construction started is good no matter what his motive is. 2006 is only three years away - progress at the site should be noticeable daily at that rate.

[JMGarcia]

More Specifics

Gov wants giant new WTC spire 'topped off' by 9/11/2006
*
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Gov. Pataki laid out an ambitious schedule Thursday to rebuild the World Trade Center site, transform lower Manhattan with parks and housing, and create direct ferry and rail links from downtown to Kennedy and La Guardia airports.

In a speech at the Ritz Carlton New York hotel overlooking the trade center site, Pataki called for the redevelopment’s centerpiece, Daniel Libeskind’s 1,776-foot “Freedom” spire, to be “topped off” by Sept. 11, 2006.

(Looks like we have an official new name. Out with "Garden Tower" and in with "Freedom Tower".)

He said he expects the building to be ready for occupancy two years later — with the governor’s office as its first tenant.

Pataki also outlined plans for a giant transit hub similar to Grand Central Terminal that will link commuter trains to subways; a tree-lined promenade; new parks; and 3,000 new housing units.

(I wonder where they're going?)

“This is not a theoretical proposal destined for the archives of state government,” Pataki said. “This plan will be carried out.”

Many aspects of the plan have also been proposed by Mayor Bloomberg. The two will largely decide what is built and how quickly in lower Manhattan, which continues to struggle 19 months after a terrorist attack brought down the twin towers.

Pataki’s speech comes as business people have grown impatient with the pace of redevelopment, the continued presence of police barricades downtown, and ongoing transportation difficulties. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said this month that 100,000 pre-attack jobs have now been lost in lower Manhattan.

Speaking Thursday before the Association for a Better New York, a group of business and civic leaders, the governor said: “Let us define lower Manhattan not by the hatred of a single day, but by the courage that triumphed that day and the days after.

“When our work is done, the history of lower Manhattan will have been written not by the terrorists who attacked our city, but by the millions of New Yorkers who stood up to defend it, and who worked to rebuild it.”

As part of an aggressive rebuilding schedule, Pataki said a new enclosed bridge over West Street, reconnecting the World Financial Center to Battery Park City, will be finished by November.

About the same time, he said, a temporary PATH commuter train station will open and PATH service will be restored. PATH trains connect the city and New Jersey.

Transportation initiatives were among the most far-reaching of the governor’s plans.

Pataki said he was pushing ahead with plans to create direct rail service from lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport and to Long Island, as well as providing fast ferry service from downtown to both of the city’s two airports.

(Sounds like a good idea that hasn't been spoken of much before.)

“By building a direct connection from lower Manhattan to Long Island, we will ensure that New Yorkers can take advantage of the new job opportunities that downtown will provide,” Pataki said.

The transit hub at the trade center site would consist of a new PATH terminal that would be used by some 150,000 people daily, and a refurbished subway station at Broadway and Fulton streets that would be linked by an underground concourse to the World Financial Center. Both, he said, would be finished by 2006.

“These concourses will make connections across lower Manhattan quick, direct and convenient,” Pataki said.

The governor also said that within two years West Street would be remade into a “magnificent tree-lined promenade.” By 2006, he said, a new tunnel from Vesey Street to Liberty Street would be finished to divert traffic underground “to protect the dignity of the (planned World Trade Center) memorial.”


Pataki said work would start on the memorial itself by 2006, after preliminary, substructure work has been completed.

(OMG - I can almost hear the whining now. "The memorial must be built first." )

By then, he said, Manhattan’s skyline will be restored.

“For all who come here, no matter the direction, they will witness the tower’s imprint on the horizon — and they will know our determination to overcome evil,” Pataki said.

[NYguy]

(Looks like we have an official new name. Out with "Garden Tower" and in with "Freedom Tower".)

I wonder if they will serve "freedom fries" at the tower, lol. *I hope that's not the official name of the building, but so long as it goes up.....

(Edited by NYguy at 2:50 pm on April 24, 2003)

[JMGarcia]

I figure is more likely to end up being called the Gov. Pataki Freedom Tower or possibly the Silverstein Freedom Tower or even possibly the Trump Freedom Tower.

Of course corporate sponsorship isn't out of the question. The American Express Ground Zero Interactive Memorial Museum for example.

I'm expecting new renderings of the tower fairly soon after this announcement.

Some additional points from NY1....

Pataki also announced $50 million worth of short-term projects to be completed within a year to improve accessibility to Lower Manhattan and the quality of life of the neighborhood’s residents and workers, including:


-new pedestrian bridges at Liberty and Vesey streets to link Battery Park City with the rest of Lower Manhattan;

-turning Fulton Street into an arts corridor;

-replacing police barricades on Broad Street with something more visually attractive;

-an international ad campaign and a discount card to attract visitors Downtown;

-a green market;

-replacing the black shroud on the Deutsche Bank Building with a mural;
(I wonder if they'll hold a competition. )

-and opening a new “Millennium High School” by September.



(Edited by JMGarcia at 2:59 pm on April 24, 2003)