Why Libeskind Won

"Mr. Pataki has repeatedly said that his focus in the rebuilding process is on the memorial to the victims of the attack, and from the beginning he has said he was moved by Mr. Libeskind's design. Many family members of victims have also favored Mr. Libeskind's preservation of so much of the site, and Mr. Pataki has sided with the desires of family members several times, as when he proclaimed last summer that nothing would be built on the ground where the two towers stood...Mr. Libeskind's design, focusing on the pit and its bleak walls, has sustained a groundswell of support that began almost as soon as it was unveiled in December. The exposed concrete walls of the excavated pit, purely functional when built and designed to hold back the subterranean waters of the Hudson River, came in Mr. Libeskind's design to represent the foundations of democracy, standing fast under the onslaught of a swift and terrifying enemy."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan