The Next WTC

Nine proposed versions of the future World Trade Center were
released to the public on Wednesday, December 18. While building
proposals are usually tucked deep within the pages of newspapers, the
overwhelming front-page coverage reflects the importance that the
currently vacant 16 acres of Manhattan land has on the minds of many
throughout the nation, if not the world. The plan that is eventually
chosen will have to fulfill society's divergent expectations for it being
both a memorial and a workplace.

"People associate New York with the World Trade Center, maybe more
intimately than the Statue of Liberty," says Harvey Schlossberg, Ph.D.,
the former chief psychologist of the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey who worked in the WTC for 10 years. "New York is new, growing,
large, bigger-than-life. And that is what [designers] have to shoot
for."

All of the plans would reestablish the skyline of the city, and
four would build the largest building in the world at the site.
Interestingly, the most popular proposal is for a tower that is 1,765
feet tall—400 feet taller than the original towers—according
to an informal CNN online poll.

Schlossberg is not surprised by the public's motivation to build on
a grander scale. "It makes them feel like they have not lost anything,"
he explains. "It's a matter of feeling like you have not been defeated.
You are able to come back and find the strength to rebuild—only
better."

"I lost very close friends there, and to me, that can never be
rebuilt," Schlossberg says. He worries that the tension between
memorializing September 11 and the development of valuable real estate
will not be resolved anytime soon.

"I think inevitably, everyone will be disappointed," says
Schlossberg. "But these concepts grow on you over time. By the time it is
finished, everyone will be pretty comfortable with it."

A decision on the nine proposals will be made by January 31,
2003.