The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Stating the painfully obvious
: Didn’t anyone stand back and look at the latest design for the schmaltzily-named Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center?
Just look at it. Do you see what I see?
I see the towers falling!
That is the last thing we need to see every day.
I don’t like the Liebeskind design.
I don’t like this, the Childs design.
We’re messing this up, aren’t we?
terribly. the wtc towers were simple, these are all so jazzy. adds nothing.
They’re missing the point entirely. They are aiming for art and design. It should be simple.
So far: ‘TIS TO BARF !!
I wrote the Times a letter about this. (They didn’t print it). What I said is that in light of Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking campaign, it was quite ironic that the design looked liked a pair of cigarettes.
Jeff Jarvis:
Yes, it is “messed up.” Read The World Trade Center Restoration Movement‘s PR on the Libeskind design.
Martin Lindeskog
Gothenburg, Sweden.
I see a couple of cigarettes.
My mother gave her great-grandson a bucket of blocks so he could rebuild the Twin Towers. I think she has the right idea.
I remember a couple of years ago when the plans were first released for London’s “Gherkin” building… everybody (including me) who first saw them went “Yuck!”. But now that it’s built it actually looks quite good.
The new buildings… like the old ones, it might just be a case of letting the citizens get used to having them around. Change is painful.
I think part of the problem is the fact that throughout the 90’s we got so used to massive displays of symbolism for everything, no matter how superficial it really was. At least, that’s how I always saw it. Now we’re faced with something so enormous that it triviallizes everything else, and all these designers are trying to cope by simply upping the ante. They want this monument to try and convey some sort of emotional reaction by it’s presence; to be some sort of piece of artwork ala a giant modern-day Guernica(sp?), instead of letting it be a conduit for the event itself. The problem is that one can’t. Not with something the enormity of September 11. The only thing you’ll end up doing is creating a monument that is garish and insulting.
You can have all the candles and reflecting pools and marble tile and glass windows, etc., that you want, but they will not compare to a simple plaque listing the names of the people who died there simply because one will actually allow the visitor to connect to the event, and let their own emotions provide the power.
Looks like a toothbrush as processed by Phillippe Starck. Though the cigarette people have a point.
I thought several of the WTC replacement designs looked like toppling shards.
Which is probably why I like the boring design. My taste leans more towards things like the Chrysler building.
Here’s my design: build an exact replica of the original WTC complex. Show them that we can take a hit and come right back at them.
The cigarette thing is only because of the black & white rendering. If built (and please let’s hope not…), there would be less contrast between the building mass and the steel cage.
My first thought (besides *ugly*) was of “hugging towers.” But now I can’t get the “falling towers” metaphor out of my mind…
If, as architects we weren’t so obsessed with FLAWED ideas that make us fell sor freaking smart, we wouldn’t do these things. All successful designers are narcissist to some extent or another – and some more than others.
But in large part, like all adolescents, we indulge in negatives things that seem to lend ourselves sophistication, but only actually reveal our inability to be decisive, decent, and thus truly urbane.