Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 23:30:39 -0500 (EST) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #188:Petitions Delivered,Plans Afoot,B of A Today I took the completed sheets of WTCRM petitions in to the headquarters of the Port Authority,having phoned the day before to make arrangements. Over 1,800 signatures of people from five continents,gathered by the efforts of just a few people on a small number of occasions. I handed them to public affairs manager Norma Manigan,who signed a receipt promising to take them to the office of Chief Operating Officer Ernesto Butcher,to whom I had addressed a cover letter. I also gave her copies of the WTCRM draft architectural program and my commentaries on the nine design team plans,and the press release for the October rally.She worked on the 68th floor of the WTC (on 9/11/01 she spent over an hour in the PATH tunnel). I had contemplated bringing along the one-page collage of the Lawrence Shen design,since it can't be seen through a link from our website http://www.put.com/wtc/ yet...I did describe it to her briefly. The decision on the "final plan" is said to be scheduled for tomorrow, possibly (and ONLY possibly,they announce nothing publicly so we have no chance to mobilize in advance) to be announced at an 11 AM Thursday Winter Garden news conference. Smart money of course is that we will see a tweaked version of Libeskind,which will then be "realistically" shorn of its distinctive elements and turned into the unimpressive dullness everyone denounced last July but Silverstein insists is what will bring in tenants. Of course,we have no intention of accepting any such "final plan" as final,and will take the battle to whatever fields necessary. And of course we are not the only dissatisfied party. Here's something I received from someone who joined this email list through signing our petitions... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 12:43:09 -0600 From: Beth Westlund Subject: WTC public meeting Louis, I thought you might want to check this out if you haven't already. >The Municipal Art Society and a network of partners are launching Imagine New York, a series of public "visioning" workshops, culminating during the week of April 11. They are inviting people in neighborhoods and towns throughout the region to come together to voice their opinions, concerns, ideas and visions for the future of the World Trade Center site, the city and our communities. The success of Imagine New York depends upon reaching as many individuals as possible, and to ensure that their ideas and voices are heard. Join them at a location near you, and have your voice heard. To sign on, visit their web site, www.imagineny.org. Thanks for all the e-mail updates you have been sending. Bea Westlund ---------- End forwarded message ---------- Of course Imagine NY has a strong bias toward change (keep voting in their poll for Neither,with CLEAR COMMENTS THAT VERY TALL OCCUPIED TOWERS ARE A MUST...Neither still leads at 41% with Libeskind still last).They will try to stack it with people who ignore the critical symbolism of skyline resilience...we should make our voices heard. The same for any efforts the Civic Alliance makes to press their inappropriate priorities...but we share with them the opposition to the way things have been handled,and likewise there is SOME common ground with the family groups. We must maneuver carefully to use opposition to the official plans to further our own goals. Reports have it that Tomson's next-in-line,Kevin Rampe (the Executive Vice President and General Counsel who came up with the disclaimers for everyone to sign abandoning all rights to any suggestions they sent the development corporation, or they would never be looked at),will be his successor as President. Stories of interest from the NY Post lately: Letters to the editor denouncing the "finalists": http:/www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/30898.htm includes one from Dominick Kosciuk among the mnre pro-Towers entries.(I noted his leaving this list over the Yamasaki-holic-extremism issue...of course I have never questioned that restoring the old design is *a* way to do what must be done.His website has a pic of himself and the Twins,and I do regret there never being any such picture of me).He has lately been talking up an "Operation Blitz" on the NYCS board; stay tuned,we can not be silenced. Steve Cuozzo's column denouncing Libeskind: http:/www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/69319.htm He is,however,a "connectionist" who thinks slamming Greenwich and Fulton Streets all the way through to tear the site apart is just fine,for all his vigorous advocacy of large amounts of functional office space there. (Meanwhile the NY Times,with its critic Muschamp having endorsed THINK,has printed a column by NYU's anti-modernist Marvin Trachtenberg that slams the old Towers and endorses Libeskind). Larry Silverstein has told the New York Sun of his insistence that he will build 50-60 story buildings and that no one will rent space higher than that.As ever,we need to get more Hakala-types who will pledge not to rent from him EXCEPT in the higher floors of very tall buildings. A more solid shove in the direction of building taller might be found as a result of another NY Post story...Tannis Baker today sent me http:/www.nypost/com/realestate/69332.htm which says that Bank of America is looking for "a signature,1990s-style headquarters project" like the Bloomberg Tower or AOL Time Warner Center. Now,the company now known as Bank of America is the biggest American bank outside New York...it has its origins in the North Carolina National Bank (originally Commercial National Bank,Charlotte) that grew into "Nationsbank" before buying the old B of A.Its nationwide mergers have brought it signature towers that are frequently the tallest in their cities or close to it.It would be a MAJOR feather in their cap to be able to have something similar in New York,seat of their chief rivals Citigroup and Morgan Chase. Atlanta's Bank of America Plaza is 1,023 feet tall. Charlotte's Bank of America Corporate Center is hundreds of feet taller than any other building in that city. Dallas's Bank of America Plaza has 72 stories. Seattle's Bank of America Tower has 76 stories. Maybe we should encourage this interest on their part? Keep your eyes on the prize in the skies. -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.