Is the Public Growing Weary of WTC Redevelopment Delays?

The seemingly endless controversies over the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site may have encouraged members of the public to look elsewhere for ways to understand and commemorate the disaster.

1 minute read

September 7, 2006, 8:00 AM PDT

By Michael Dudley


"The Freedom Tower finally began to rise a few months ago, following a design by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that, like almost everything related to Ground Zero, has been drastically revised. Most of the things planned for the sixteen acres at Ground Zeroâ€"including a memorial, a set of cultural buildings, a transportation center, several office buildings, and a shopping centerâ€"have suffered countless troubles, and are certain not to go up in the forms originally planned.

Amid all the squabbles and revisions, it’s unsurprising that so many people who once cared passionately about Ground Zero have simply lost track of the developments there and have stopped caring. This summer, the success of the first movies about 9/11, and acclaim for a clutch of important novels dealing with the subject, showed that the public is still hungry to make sense of the tragedy and what it means for America. But they are no longer looking to architects, contractors, and developers for answers."

Monday, September 4, 2006 in The New Yorker

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