Tragic Beauty: Preserving WTC Tower Facade As Sculpture

Some see beauty in the twisted aluminium facade wreckage at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center and are calling for its preservation.

1 minute read

September 27, 2001, 7:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

That twisted aluminum remnant of the south tower of the World Trade Center has become the most revered shape in the city. The sightseers snapping pictures from two blocks away can't help calling it beautiful...Now people study the charred metal and see a Roman coliseum, a Gothic cathedral, a ship, a bird in flight, a hand reaching to heaven...they're already wondering how best to preserve the facade... Other cities have turned wartime wreckage into memorials, and there's talk of doing that with the tower facade...the facade above isn't just the debris from a successful attack ? it's the building hanging on, still refusing to fall, just like New Yorkers. It's the message sung by Tom Petty during Friday night's telethon: 'I'll stand my ground.'"

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: Beauty From Evil: Preserving Felled Tower Facade as Sculpture

Wednesday, September 26, 2001 in The New York Times

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