[Narrator] I think in some ways
the skyline of a city
can be compared to a human face
that you can read into those
features,
an enormous amountof the city'
personality.
- New York is a city of tall
buildings,
that's its essential identity.
- The Twin Towerswere limited
in many ways,
but they were maximum skyline.
And for a lot of people,
they were partof orienting
yourself in New York,
'cause you could see themfrom
almost everywhere.
And with it gone, you feel that
loss
and I think in the end,
it's a struggle for New Yorkto
get its city back.
[Everything Is Broken by Bob
Dylan]
Broken lines broken strings
Broken threads broken springs
Broken idols broken heads
People sleeping in broken bed
16 ACRES
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken
Broken bottles broken plates
Broken switches broken gates
Broken dishes broken pots
Streets are filled with broke
hearts
Broken words never meant to b
spoken
Everything is broken
- [Scott Raab] New York City's
responseto 9/11 and the
immediate aftermath,
was exemplary. It was just--I
think wonderful, in terms of
people
genuinely opening their
heartsand literally, in many
cases,
embracing each other. People who
had nothing in common except
geography,
suddenly realizing they had
everythingin common and they
were a family.
One community.And I think
that's fantastic.
And I think it felt great at
the time.
You know, it didn't last
forever.It wasn't ever going to
last forever.
It would be nice, you know,to
have that Kumbayamoment,
just go on and on and on and
on,ain't gonna happen,
ain't ever gonna happen,and it
ain't ever gonna happen here.
[loud horn]
Here you have perhaps the most
valuable16 acres on the face of
the earth.
And suddenly, it's gone.
And these 16 acres at the
center of the Cosmos, are
empty.
And fair game, what fills that
vacuum,depends on who you are.
And the tug of war began
immediately.
- [Reporter] "Less than two
months ago,Larry Silverstein's
real estate company
spent more than 3 billion
dollars to lease
the World Trade Center
Towersfor 99 years.
Last Tuesday, he not only
suffered a professional loss
when the landmark buildings came
crashing down,
but a personal one as well.
Several of his employees are
among the missing.
- [Larry Silverstein] I've had
the most gut wrenching
experience of my life.
And to lose, for my people,
their families,the devastation
that's been wrought
to that part of Manhattan.
- [Reporter] Many people
see that site now
really as hollowed ground
because there are thousands of
bodies that are entombed there.
I mean, should we build a
structure on that site?
-Well, I believe we should.
[phone ringing]
Hello. Oh hey, David. How are
you?
- [Philip Nobel] Larry
Silverstein was vilified
immediately
as the greedy developer,because
people in New York
don't know any other kind of
developer.
- [Silverstein] It wouldn't
surprise me,
if the replacement of theTwin
110-storey towers
ultimately results in
the creation of four towers.
Perhaps, 50, 55--maybe 60
storeys in height.
- [Philip] The first thing he
did was he came out with a plan
for the site.
A kind of a sketch plan for the
site that rebuilt all of the
square footage
to the inch and then threw in a
little park.
And that was a week after the
attack.You know, too early.
Then, he told the Wall Street
Journal
that it would be a tragedy for
him not to rebuild.
- [Silverstein] It came down,I
think a day or two later.
And it was-- God,it was awful.
It was awful.
I mean, you couldn't describe
it.And there were firemen all
over the site,
trying to find
comrades,policemen trying to
find--
I mean, it was excruciating.
- [Philip] One of the things
people forget about the event
and the re-development
is this little special period of
time,between the Tuesday of the
attack
and the Friday when George Bush
came to town.
There is a sense, I think,
among,you know, I don't think
was alone
in feeling of that it wasan
open narrative.
- [George Bush] I want you all
o know--you can't go any louder.
[people laugh]
- [Philip] Then Bush came to
town on Fridaythe 14th and he
was touring site
and someone, he was speaking
to the hard hats
who are cleaning the place
up,standing on this pile of God
knows what,
and someone said, "I can't hear
you."
And he said, fairly famously,-
[Bush] "I can hear you."
[everybody laughs and cheers]
"I can hear you. The rest of
the world hears you and the
people--
[cheering continues]
and the people who knocked
these buildings down, will hear
all of us soon.
[all cheer]
- [Philip] As this was an
attack onour freedom
narrative, came into being,
pressure on the site, in
addition to all the other things
that go into a construction
site,the pressure on the site
became,
"This is our responseand it ha
to be defined."
In a context, where it's
alreadyvery difficult to do
anything,
the site was being askedto do
the impossible.
No commercial office building
that I know of,
in the history of officesand
commerce, has ever been asked
to also be a symbol of defiant
renewal or a symbol of
vengeance,
or a symbol of healing, you
know.That's just not what
skyscrapers do.
All of a sudden, there's this
ideathat this building is
somehow going to
do something architectural, the
illmagically make everyone fee
better.
- [Mayor Giuliani] I really
believe weshouldn't think about
this site out there,
right behind us, right here, as
a site for economic development.
and we should think abouta
soaring monumental, beautiful
memorial.
This could be a place that gets
remembered
a hundred and a thousand years
from now.
Like the great battlefields of
Europe and of the United
States.
We have to be able to create
somethinghere that enshrines
this forever.
[crowd applauding]
- [Raab] When Mayor Guiliani
gavehis farewell address, he
suggested
that nothing should be rebuilt
here,that it'd simply become a
memorial.
A large, serene memorialto the
people who died on 9/11.
There was never any chance of
that happening. I think the
Mayor knew it.
I think the proof that he knew
it was to create the LMDC,
the Lower Manhattan
DevelopmentCorporation, in order
to pass that
along to George Pataki, for fear
that a mayor, who was not a
Republican,
was going to succeed Guiliani.
ALBANY
- [George Pataki] The LMDC was
right after September 11th.
Mayor Guiliani and I sat down
and said,"We're gonna need
massive assistance.
We're gonna have help from
Washington.We're gonna have
insurance proceeds.
And we need a vehicle, whose
sole purpose,so they won't get
distracted, will be
to make sure that the funds are
appropriately targeted.
- [Reporter] The Governor of New
York is central to what
eventually happens
in Lower Manhattan. Here's
why.Two agencies, the Lower
Manhattan
Development Corporation and the
Port Authority control the
process
and New York's Governor controls
half of each.
- [Philip] There's no single
person involved with the
re-development
who had his much sway on it as
George Pataki.
He achieved that positionby
creating the LMDC
and initially packing it with is
cronies and using it as almost
like, control rods
to change the pace of the
process.At some point, he would
slow it down,
at some point, he would speed it
up,
purely to suit his needs at any
given point,
which were profound,because he
was running
for re-election during the
process.
- [Reporter] Here in our area,
jury will begin deliberating
over how much money will be
available
to rebuild the World Trade
Center Complex.
Developer Larry Silverstein is
suingseveral insurance
companies claiming,
the attack on Twin Towerswas
two separate events.
The insurers say it was one.
Billions of dollars are at
stakeon the outcome.
- [Silverstein] First issue. One
event,two events. We needed, as
it turns out,
we needed two events, because to
rebuild the Trade Center,
the cost to rebuild the Trade
Center
would require, not just $3.5
billion,it would require closer
to $7 billion.
Right? We needed more money.
- [Roland Betts] I thinkhe was
preoccupied with this
bizarre legal theorythat there
were two buildings,
so therefore it was two
separate incidentsand
therefore,he had to double his
return.
Most of us in the LMDC thought
just logically, that would be a
silly result.
You know, you have insurance
policy on two buildings for a
set number.
I don't see mathematically, how
you're gonna end up with more
than a set number.
- [Janno Lieber] People argued
about ita little bit, like it
was common sense,
but believe me, anyone who has
readan insurance policy knows
it's not a common sense
industry,it's all about the
specific language
and what it means. And in
fairness, that was essential to
protect the possibility
of rebuilding, that somebody
talked about,
"How are we gonna get the money
to do this?"
The result was that Larry was a
typecast, I think, early on in
the process,
as somebody who was fighting
about money,while people were
worrying about
human loss and then about
whether we were gonna build
something great.
And Larry was off fighting about
money.
- [Silverstein] They did
everything they possibly could
to excoriate,
to criticize, to denigrate. It
was just a constant flow.
Talk about, needing a thick skin
for that, let me tell you,
I just had to get thick fast.
Born in Brooklyn, it was nota
very pretty part of Brooklyn.
So, probably not one of the
best,probably one of the worst
I remember we lived at the top
of a--either a six or a seven
story walk-up.
It had the best view, but you
had to walk up.
It was not a very luxurious
existence.
My parents, obviously, were
struggling. And then after that,
I went to NYU.
And by this time, my father
gravitated into the real estate
business.
He became a real estate broker.
He read someplace that real
estate
was a foundation of wealth,so he
decided to become a broker.
I said, "The guys who make the
money are the guys who own the
buildings."
I said, "We could become an
owner."
I remember finding a
buildingdown on East 23rd
street,
so I remember finding how much
it was.
Six-hundred thousand it was for
the building.
Six-hundred thousand, where do
you get $600,000?
So what we did, we went to the
peoplemy father had
successful leased
stores and lofts to. And then,I
had made the pitch.
They only joined us for a small
investment in the building.
And one after one
another,finally said, "yes."
And we bought buildings, bought
langer buildings and we
renovate buildings,
we altered them, we modernized
them.And then, ultimately, it
led to finally
being the foundation. Pour in
the slab and building the
building.
- [Lieber] 7 World Trade
Centerwas developed in the
early 1980s,
because the Port Authorityhad
piece of land,
just north of the World Trade
Center siteand they decided to
develop it.
And Silverstein won the bid.
And so, all of a sudden,
Silverstein was at a new level.
- [Silverstein] I rememberat
the topping out ceremony of 7,
looking up at the Twin
Towers,and saying to myself,
"God, look at this."
But my building's big. It's a 2
million foot building.
It's a big building. But, look
at that stuff, huge.
And there are two of them,
right? Massive.
I said, "Wouldn't it be
fantasticif someday I'll own
those?"
Got it done. Hence, therein
started the odyssey, six weeks
before 9/11.
- [speaker] I think the
Towershould be built back.
I think it should be built
tall,as tall, if not taller.
I like to comment earlier about
a library. I always said I
wanted a school.
- [speaker] You could also
have an exhibition hall.
You could have a concert
hall.There's enough room there.
- [speaker] How could you
build on sacred grounds?
The whole site should be a
memorial.
- [speaker] Our new World Trade
Center Towers must be at least
111 storeys tall.
[crowd applause and cheers]
- [Lieber] People are starting
to think about what's going to
be created there.
And ultimately, there's a
debateabout what should happen
at the World Trade Center site,
which is classic New York,
with everybody taking very
strong opinions
that pull in totally opposite
directions,
where a lot of different people
arefighting for the one thing
that they want.
What ought to be rebuilt
there? How do we respond to
9/11?
- [Rosaleen Tallon] I should
call Sally and tell them I'm two
minutes away.
Excuse me. Sorry.
See, if you get behind these
slow people, you know.
- How are you doing, Rosaleen?-
Good to see you. Hi, Dorman.
[people chattering]
Good morning. My name is
Rosaleen Tallon.
This is my mother, Eileen.
We lost my brother, Sean Patrick
Tallon. He was a probationary
firefighter
at Ladder 10, which is the
firehouse at the World Trade
Center.
If you look at Oklahoma
city, those families are really
an integral
part of the process
to decision-making process.
So, to say at a minimum, that's
what we're asking.
Include us in the process.
Because to this point, we have
not been included.
[dog barking in distant]
[kids playing in distant]
We knew he was always going to
beeither a policeman or
fireman
It was just, you know,as they
say,"It's in the Irish."
The first tower collapsed. And
then, we arrived home
and we watched the tower on
TV and we knew that Sean was up
there
because his company would've
been first on the scene.
So, there was no doubt in our
minds that he was in there.
I remember standing at the
precipice,right outside the
firehouse door.
These people are buried inside
there.
I mean, loved ones. I
mean,knowing Sean was in there,
I mean, my God, like looking at
that pile,
and knowing that my little
brother was in there
and there wasn't anything I
could do about it.
Because of the enormity of what
happenedand all of these
people died in there,
my parents were definitely
hopingthat the site could, say
be a green field of remembrance
But we realized that wasn't
going to be.
There were too many
commercial and real estate
interests that
you know, they had to build back
up their square footage.
- [Pataki] One of the
thingsthat people don't
appreciate is that
there was an enormous economic
falloutafter September 11th.
We lost a 100,000 private sector
jobs that morning.
We lost millions of square
feetof office space.
Companies were leaving New
York,so it had to get built.
And the initial plan was,let
the Port Authority do it.
THE PORT AUTHORITY
- [Kenneth Ringler] I was having
dinner at a local pub around the
corner
from my apartment and somebody
was sitting next to me and they
said,
"So, what do you do?" and I
said,"Well, I run the Port
Authority."
And they said, "Does that mean
you do the bus scheduling?"
And I had to explain that the
Port Authority
was a little more than the bus
terminal.
- [Lieber] Port Authority built
the Lincoln Tunnel
and George Washington Bridge
and many of our
biggest transportation
facilities
and also built the World Trade
Center.
- [Silverstein] I obligated
myself to paythe ground rent o
$120 million a year
to the Port Authority for 99
years,
which is like in perpetuity with
no abatements of any kind
'cause no one anticipated the
9/11 event.
- [Kenneth] You know, it stuck
in his craw that he had to do
that.
But, the fact of the matter
is,he was insured to do that.
It's called business
interruption insurance.
And you continue paying your
rent.
- [Raab] Here is Larry
Silverstein paying,
I think, $10 million a month
ground rent at nothing.
- [Reporter] The plans are
moving aheadto rebuild one of
the buildings
destroyed in the World Trade
Center attacks.
7 World Trade Center
collapsedseveral hours after
the Twin Towers fell.
The owner of the 47-storey
buildinghopes to break ground
o a new structure
on September 11th.
- [Silverstein] So, once we
starteddesigning the building,
people came out of the woodwork
and said,
"Silverstein, you're crazy.No
one's gonna come back down.
I mean, this is foolhardy.
Second of all, you got that
burning mass
immediately to the South
area,it's ground zero. It's a
mess.
I mean, how is anybody gonna
come back around? It's
foolishness.
I mean, you're really doing
yourself irreparable harm."
- [Lieber] 7 World trade
Center,we were able to get the
building going
very quickly, because it
wasjust us and the Port
Authority
and that was it. We didn't have
to deal with
a ton of different government
agencies. Across the street was
totally different.
On the city side, we had the
Mayor,the Economic Development
Corporation,
the Industrial Development
Agency,
the Departmentof Environmental
Protection,
the Department of
Transportation,Department of
Design and Construction,
the Police Department,the Fire
Department,
the Buildings Department,the
City Council and
the Local Community Board.
On the State level, we hadthe
Empire State Development
Corporation,
the Departmentof Environmental
Conservation,
the State Historic Preservation
Office,
the New York State Department
of Transportation,
the New York State Officeof
Emergency Management,
and then, even at the Federal
level,we had Congress,
we had the White House,
Department of Housingand Urban
Development
the Federal Departmentof
Homeland Security,
FEMA, SBA, EDA, OSHA,
and not to forgetthe Army Corp
of Engineers,
so it just went on and on and
on.
- [Betts] I started calling
meetings of the heads of all the
agencies
and Silverstein's is on. And the
meetings had 50, 60 people in
the room.
It was completely
unworkable. Tremendous cross
currents.
Silverstein and the Port
Authority wanted a 10 million
square feet of
office space and at the other
end,some victim families
wanted this
to be hollowed ground.They
wanted nothing.
There was another groupthat
said that they wanted to see the
Twin Towers rebuilt exactlyas
the Twin Towers.
From the beginning, I was pretty
pessimistic
that this could actually be
coralled.
- [Raab] Once the site was
cleaned up,people expected
something to arise
magically from the dust.
Hey,it's New York City,
let's get it done yesterday.
But I don't think people get the
complexity of the site
especially below grade and the
fact that it's literally a
couple hundred feet
from a big river and that it
ain't easy to keep that river
from pushing
through the earth on this
site. And in fact, that was one
of the
most daunting, if not the most
daunting challenge of the
original building,
the original Twin Towers was,how
do you keep the Hudson River
out?
- [Announcer] The site actually
consistedof water log landfill
which had accumulated over two
centuriesout of old wharves an
debris.
To support the great weight of
the towers,foundations had had
to be dug
down 70 feet to bedrock.An
underground wall was built
completely sealing the
site.Excavation began.
- [Pataki] Given the
ownership, given the emotion,
given that the technical
engineering challenges,
you couldn't have a more
difficult site. But everybody
knew that.
And it's what you have.
- [Betts] What we decided to do
was, engage a firm called, Beyer
Blinder Belle.
And so, Beyer Blinder Belle came
in and they became the
architects of record.
- [Philip] They were hired by
the LMDC to just crunch the
numbers
and show what could happen
spatiallyin that place, using
these numbers
dictated by Larry Silverstein's
lease.
With this big pile of square
footageand this kinda little
area,
what are we gonna do and what's
possible?
So, Beyer Blinder Belle was
working on these designs and the
public
desire for a meaningful,
symbolic architectural solution
reserved
building through the months and
they happen to converge in
public
in the Javits Center, in this
very hi-tech, super managed,
so-called 21st century town
meeting.
- [Reporter] Six proposals are
on the table. Today, 5000 New
Yorkers
will have a chance to voice
their opinions about those plans
at a meeting called, Listening
to the City.
[people chattering]
- [speaker] The footprints is
not to sort of acknowledge some
great
architecture, but the place is
sort of charged with meaning
and so many loved ones in
layers, that it is one way to
have a somber,
yet, not offensive memorial.
- [speaker] I just wanna see as
much left that was there before
September 11th,
still there after this scariest
memory constructed.
- [Betts] And everybody could
participate.
They had little computer boards
there.Everybody could vote for
anything.
And everybody could talk and so
on.
- [speaker] Sometimes, when you
lookat all of this, you wonder
"Where's the memorial?"
Have we just moved on and
created tax-free shopping days?
- [speaker] We don't like the
fact that green as an isolated
rectangle
with buildings around it.- Not
enough green.
Go back to this drawing book.-
Strongly, this is strongly
helpful.
- Get new architects.
- [Betts] And the comments in
real time,would show up on a
screen
'cause the typingwould show
right up there.
And then people would votefor
what they like and didn't like.
And somewhere about two-thirds
the way through the meeting,
a comment showed up on the
screen saying,
"I hate all these plans.They
look like Albany."
Okay, and I really think that
captured the day
because I think everybody looked
as if, "Yeah, they kinda do."
- [Pataki] It was a perfectly
good plan for a site that didn't
have
the emotional and historic
importance to America.
But from that sense, it was
unacceptable. So at that point,
we said no.
- [Philip] After the Beyer
Blinder Belle plans were
essentially shut down,
you know, publicly, at the
Javits Center, the Pataki
messaging machine
was in a little bit of a
crisis because the election was
approaching
and the idea that he "wasn't
doing enough at Ground Zero fast
enough."
had already been injected into
the campaign.
And then, there was a moment of
the LMDC
sort of casting around, saying,
"What now?"
- [Betts] I called an emergency
meeting of the LMDC and I said,
"Look, we gotta scrap this
thing.This is nowhere. These
plans stink.
Everybody knows they stink. And
we gotta do something."
"Okay, well what do you wanna
do?"
I said, "I wanna have an
architectural competition. A
true competition."
- [Pataki] We are going to go
out and have a process
and engage some of the world's
greatest architects.
- [Philip] And the next step
was to seek out the
visionaries.
- [Announcer] The LMDC is now
lookingfor new international
design teams
to come up with still more
conceptsusing broad guidelines
that include,
a tall symbol or structureseen
in the skyline,
the footprints of the original
Twin Towerswould remain
undeveloped.
- [Philip] By the following
December,every network in the
world,
set up to film this dramatic
unveilingof the new future of
Ground Zero.
- [Betts] We're about to
seeseven very different vision
by some extraordinary thinkers
in their approach to the
restoration
of hope and optimism to Lower
Manhattan.
- [Architect] We tried to make
with these united towers,
what we call, "The City in the
Sky,"which at the 60th floor.
These towers come together and
join.
- [Architect] The two tall
towers in the middle are at
least 1400 feet tall.
They symbolize triumph. They're
sort of universal.
They're standing there on big
shoulders with their hands in
the air.
- [Architect] A natural fact.
It's two towers, which kiss
and touch and become one.
- [Daniel Libeskind] When
I first startedon the
competition everybody had an
idea.
Every New Yorker, every member
of the family, every uncle,
aunt, niece,
nephew, every acquaintance. When
they found out that I was doing
it,
"I have an idea. Do this, do
his."And it suddenly occurred to
me
that this was really not just an
architectural issue,
it was an issue of the soul of
people,
because everyone was
somehow, part of that day.
- [Betts] We had a broad
spectrum,
but it was clear that there were
two that emerged.
One was Daniel Libeskind and one
was Rafael Violy.
- [Rafael Violy] We started
this process, essentially by
defining
for ourselves a principle, what
we felt was moral obligation,
which was not only to
remember the ones that perished
in this tragedy,
but also, to use their memory to
elevate our memory
to become the inspiration for a
better future.
- [Betts] The Violy plan was
very, very different.
The Violy plan had these round
cylinders,if you will, that yo
could see through.
The idea was that they were
preservingas a hollowed ground
the space in which people
died. Well, this was spunky.
This was really different and
really interesting.
- [Violy] The skyland of
Manhattan isre-structured,
re-constructed
with the icons of the public
life.Thanks.
[crowd applause]
- [Betts] I'm now happyto
present Daniel Libeskind.
[applause]
- [Libeskind] Thanks. Thank you
very much.
I arrived by ship to New Yorka
a teenager, an immigrant.
and like millions of others
before me, my first sight was
that of the
Statue of Liberty and the
amazing skyline of Manhattan.
I have never forgotten that
sight or what it actually stands
for.
This is what this project is all
about.
- [Philip] Everyone had been
looking for a leader or you
know,
someone to put a
non-political, non-bureaucratic
face in the process
and all of a sudden, arrives
this guy with the perfect back
story
and you know, the ability to
present it, you know, super
effectively.
- [Libeskind] I grew up in
Poland. Then to America, where
my father had
his only surviving sisters
who were an Al Fritz, from a
family
of ten brothers and sisters, so
he was determined to come to New
York.
It represented everything that
peopledreamed about and it
still does.
Those who are lost have become
heroes. To commemorate those
lost lives,
I created two large public
spaces. The park of heroes and
the wedge of light.
The sky will become home again
to a towering spire 1776 feet
tall,
creating an icon that speaks to
our vitality in the face of
danger
and our optimism in the
aftermath of tragedy.
- [Philip] When asked to do this
thing, which is so impossible
that it's almost magic, you
know, architects can fill in the
difference
by attaching words to the
project. People understand
words.
And Libeskind's architecture
always comes heavily loaded with
words.
And the design he presented at
Ground Zerowith the matrix of
heroes
and the wedge of light and the
towerthat through a tight,
somehow spoke
about the Declaration of
Independence.
All of that stuff bridges the
gap betweenwhat can be, you
know,
very funny looking architecture
and thingsthat real people can
actually understand,
because "I'm gonna make you feel
better about September 11th,"
is not a thing that a building
can say.
- [Libeskind] It's 1776 feet
high, very important and it is
not just about
nations, it's about ecological
zones, ecological regions.
The twenty upper storeys will be
developed into very
spectacular--
it's like a park standing
vertically and of course--
- [Philip] Daniel Libeskind
readthe political landscape
perfectly
and pitched to the city in the
worldand the powers that be,
kind of merging
of you know, a hip architecture
that was also flag-waving.
[crowd applause]
- [Betts] I was so engaged in
it.I thought it was phenomenal
But I didn't knowwhat other
people would think.
So, I went home that night and I
started looking at newspapers
and I looked around
tomorrow morning's papers.
I looked, there's a site where
you can find every newspaper in
the world.
And I must've looked at 300
that night.I did it almost all
night just looking.
I just can't believe it. I tell
my wife,"Look at this, God."
You know, in the middle of
nowhere, Malaysia... and here it
is.
One or more of those imageswas
on the front page
of every newspaper in the world
And I think that wasn't lost on
Violy and Libeskind
and somebody was gonna win and
therefore,the stakes were
unbelievably high
and they wanted to win. So, it
did get a little naughty.
- [Philip] After Libeskind and
THINK were sort of selected as
finalist,
there was, you know, campaigns
of muttering.
- [Libeskind] You know,
everybody wants to win and you
know, if you're naive,
you don't know what kind of
forces are arrayed against you.
There was not a minute that it
was just, "Go, relax."
You know, meditate. It was a
constant passionate sort of
struggle.
- [Philip] And the kind of
things,you know, that sort of
rovey
on political tactics,taken
into the world of architecture
and being propagated by
amateurs. So it was a good time
for all.
- [Lieber] It was blood sport
and these guys were going for
the biggest prize
the architecture had ever
seen.And there's a lot at
stake for that.
- [Philip] Libeskind had chosen
to leave the pit empty,
preserved as a memorial,
so his opponents started
whisperingthat it was a pit of
death
and an open grave and kind
of,you know, there's a lot of
ways
to see how that gesturecould
be perceived as inappropriate.
And then, the THINK team went
out know, very high up in the
air
with these open steel-- kind of
Eiffel towers, so the Libeskinds
started saying that they
wereskeletons in the sky.
- [Betts] So, we finally came to
the point of determining who we
wanted to win
and we chose Violy's plan.
- [Libeskind] It was early in
the morning.I remember being i
a car,
taxi in New York, going
somewhereLower Manhattan and the
headline,
the day before the
competition was to be judged in
the New York Times
was "Scheme selected, scheme
ex-selected."
Was that my scheme?
And of course, when I read that
headline, I was crushed.
- [Pataki] I remember waking
pin the morning seeing the front
page
of the Timesthat the LMDC is
going to choose the Violy plan
and going,
"No, this can't be." Because I
thought, the Violy plan,
one was, unbuildable, two
was,economically unsound and
three,
were the footprints where had
theseskeletons really rising
into the sky
that to me symbolize the
destruction of the past,
instead of the hope of the
future.And I just thought it was
a terrible idea.
- [Betts] He just ripped
Violy's plan.And he said it
looks like these oil tanks
in New Jersey and no one's
evergonna want to walk in
there,
or they're gonna fall down,jus
all this stuff.
So now, we were in a pretty
awful position here because the
LMDC had voted,
not just as a site committee,but
as the full LMDC
and expressed a clear
preference for Violy and
basically,
Pataki came in and kinda just
pulled the rug out from under
the LMDC
and you know, he just reversed
the decision.
- [Pataki] How are you? Good to
see you.
- [Libeskind] Great day. This is
a great day.
- [Betts] And so, in a sense,the
Libeskind plan became his plan.
- [Libeskind] It suddenly dawned
on me what immense
responsibility I have.
It wasn't just all great. Oh my,
god. Now, with these few lines
on paper,
how am I going to be able to
do what I promised to do?
- [Announcer] Out of this
gaping woundin of the heart of
the New York Financial Center,
wherethe 1300 foot tall Twin
Towers once stood,
an even taller building will
rise.
- [Pataki] The design plan has
an inspiring spire.
- [Libeskind] It is the biggest
challenge.The most profoundly
moving
emotionally intellectual,
architecturally spiritual
project
I've ever done here, of course.
- [Philip] For three months,
Libeskindgave Pataki
everything he needed.
[Libeskind laughs]
He got in front of any camera
and told a gripping story
and there was imagery to attach
to it.
[bell ringing]
And he was ringingthe right
political bells
and everyone was happy.
Except for Larry Silverstein.
- [Lieber] Larry actually
preferred Libeskind's entry to
the others.
But once it became clear that
Libeskindwanted to design the
building,
in addition to being the master
planner,we did get into a little
conflict with him
because Libeskind had done a
coupleof buildings of moderate
size,
some architecturally dramatic
ones,including the museum in
Berlin.
But he had not done a
skyscraper,he had not done very
tall tower,
which is a completely different
exercise.
- [Betts] What Libeskind was
picked for was the master plan.
He was not picked to design and
build skyscrapers, something he
had never done.
- [Lieber] So, as Larry
Silversteinexplained to
Libeskind once when
we were having a meeting, he
said,"Dan, if I'm gonna have
open heart
surgery, I wanna have
somebodywho's done it before.
And a building of 1700 feet in
height,is the architectural
equivalent
of open heart surgery."
And Dan's wife, who is his
partner,you know, in his
practice said,
"He's a quick learner," and
Larry said,
"Not on my heart, you're not
gonna learn how to do open
heart surgery."
- [Silverstein] This meeting's
over.We're done.
She says, "Don't get excited."
I said, "I'm not excited," I
said,"Just wanna say this
meeting's over.
I'm having no further
discussion about the redesign.
It's off the table. Finished.
- [Libeskind] Here's a man with
money,with power, with the idea
that
it belongs to him, he had his
own ideas with his own
architects.
- [David Childs] Larry came to
me and he said, "Your trade in
life,
what you're a specialist is, is
tall office buildings.
I need you to do this."
- [Lieber] Larry announced the
truth,which is he's gonna do the
building
with the architect he
chose,which is David Childs,
from Skidmore, Owings and
Merrill.
He did the Worldwide Plaza
building,
he did the Bankof New York
Operations Center,
he's done a lot of big
buildings.
- [Libeskind] David is a, you
know,very accomplished, very
powerful
architect running a firm of
thousands of people.
You know, it was really kind
of David and Goliath.[laughs]
- [Childs] It was a functioning,
operating office building in a
capitalistic society.
This was not just a piece of
sculpture there in the air.
Some time in the middle of the
summer,we were summoned to a
meeting
at the offices of the LMDCand
there was a negotiation.
- [Philip] Libeskind and Childs
were literally thrown into a
room together.
- [Childs] You've gotta have
somebody in charge. You can't
have two generals.
You've gotta have one that has
51% of the vote.
And so, that's what I insisted
on.
[people chattering]
- [Libeskind] This is not a
press conference. This is a
photo op.
- [reporter] Have you ever
seenhappier faces in your life
- [Silverstein] Once or twice.-
[Libeskind] It's a great day.
Fantastic collaboration.
Wait, we have to roll up our
sleeves. We gotta get to work.
- [Childs] If body language says
anything,this is the picture.
- [reporter] What's the reality
- [Libeskind] It's real, it's
real.
[cameras clicking]
- [Silverstein] Okay, let's
go.Thank you.
Right behind you.Keep going,
keep going.
- [Libeskind] David, they want
us--- [Childs] This is our
scheme,
see how well-- [Libeskind
laughing]
- [Lieber] But it was very
clearfrom the beginning that
these guys
did not look at things the same
way.
Childs and his team would
present,you know, technical
issues
and how they propose to solve
them or options for solving them
and Libeskind's comments
tended to be focused on more
ethereal,
symbolic and general issues, you
know. I think Dan said,
"The top has to be more
meaningful."And that you could
see
that Childs' blood rising.
- [Childs] I think that in fact,
that Libeskind thought that he
would have
a more of a role than I was
gonna be somehow change and be
willing to
just execute his role as a
designer.Frankly, Larry wouldn't
permit that.
- [Libeskind] He's an
industrialist.He wants to make
profits.
He has an empire, you know.It's
not the philanthropic
enterprise,
it's how to create profits,which
I appreciate.
Now, what would New York be if
people were not entrepreneurial
to want make money. But that
often came into tension with
other ideas.
- [Pataki] When our work is
done,the history of Lower
Manhattan
would have been written, not by
the terrorists
who attacked our city,
but by the millions of New
Yorkers,who stood up to defend
it.
By the 5th anniversary of the
attack,September 11th 2006,
we will top off a new icon.The
1776-foot tall Freedom Tower.
[applause]
- [Raab] My vast--people close
to the governor,
was that political calculation
or a spur of the moment,
naming it, "The Freedom
Tower."And the best answer I've
heard
is that it had been
discussed,but no one had really
signed off on it
and no one was sure of it until
it came out of his mouth during
the speech.
- [Pataki] What is 1776?It's a
symbol of our freedom.
It's the year we proclaimed our
independence.
So it just made sense that word
just kinda fell in and fit the
building.
- [Philip] There's a letter in
theNew York Post that was
brilliant.
The letter said, "This building
s nothingbut a perch for Georg
Pataki
to climb up and gaze offin the
direction of Washington."
And that was true. Pataki was
actively using the process to
further
his political ambition as any
politician would.
- [Pataki] Good morning.We're
here today for the unveiling
of the model of the Freedom
Tower.
When Daniel Libeskind revealed
his master site plan, the idea
was
to create a building, the
tallest building in the world,
yes,
but symbolically, 1776 feet
tall.But mostly today, is a
celebration
of the successful
collaboration of two brilliant
architects,
who understand that this is not
just a building,
this is a symbol of freedom.
So to Daniel Libeskind and
to David Childs,
congratulations.
[cameras clicking]
[applause]
- That's it?- That's it.
Don't trip now as we go on
there.
[people chattering]
[cameras clicking]
[people chatting]
- [Philip] When Libeskind and
Childsallegedly started
working together,
the kind of face saving design
that cameout of that, had this
big stick on top.
And that stick and the numbers
1776 were the only thing
that survived of the
original Libeskind concept.
They presented this huge
modelthat was 10 feet tall or
something.
It lit from within and who
nowshow much money was spent o
it.
And as they were moving it out
of the Federal Hall,
where they had the
presentation,the S-1 guys broke
the stick off,
so it could clear the door, you
know.
And that was the last we saw of
Danny's stick.
- [Rosaleen] No matter what
people talk about,buildings or
their real estate,
Ground Zero is ground zerofor
what happened there.
So, the most important thing
was how we were gonna remember
what happened there to those
people.
- [speaker] And this eternal
flame will be visible, just
like the tower was,
so you don't have to come to
this memorial to remember what
happened here.
- [speaker] The key feature of
my design is that every visitor
will clearly visualize and
absorb the enormity of the
sacrifice.
Every victim will be represented
by his or her own
individuallife-sized human
statue.
- [speaker] We could then
have two or three foot crystal
birds.
One for each life lost.
[applause]
- [Pataki] We wanted public
involvement,so we invited
submissions.
We got thousands.
- [Anchorman] More than 5000
people submitted proposals for
a memorial
at the site of the World Trade
Center.
Today, a committee chose this
one.It's called, Reflecting
Absence.
Designed by New Yorker, Michael
Arad,it will include the names
of everyone killed in the 9/11
attackson the World Trade
Center.
- [Michael Arad] I was working
as an assistant architect
for the New York City
HousingAuthority, Design
Department,
when I found out there was a
competition for the design of
the memorial,
and I had to do this.
There's no sort of rational
explanation for why you get so
drawn into it.
I came across this quarry in
South Orangeand there's just
something very beautiful
and evocative about it, because
it hadthis sort of clearly
traced out absence
of all the rockthat had been
excavated out,
but was softened by the water
and by the trees and I think
that
helped me to start thinking
about the Memorial Plaza.
Days after the attack, I
rememberbiking around Lower
Manhattan
at night and I made my wayto
Washington Square Park
and I found myself standing
near that central fountain,
the grand fountain.People
placed candles there.
And I felt like I was part of
that group.
You know, I came there,not
knowing anybody
and not a word was said.And I
left a few minutes later
without having said anything to
anybody
but, I left completely changed.
All of a sudden,that notion of
sort of being
cruelly removed from the life o
the city,
I mean, that just shattered. An
we're part of it, a greater all
You had to be.
[cycling sound]
- [Rosaleen] Our neighborhood
erein Yonkers is full of
police officers
and fire fighters. So, after
9/11,I met other family member
and they were very, very
intent on making sure that,
as they said, the brothers were
listed with their ranks,
and I thought that was a
no-brainer.
So, they asked me, would I dare
to join the group, advocating
for 9/11
issues, and they seemed like
such a simple thing to become
involved in.
- [Betts] I mean, simple things
like,what's the order of the
names?
Is it organized
alphabeticallyby last name?
Is it organized alphabetically
y last namewithin the firemen'
group?
Are the firemen over here and
the police over here?
I mean, these are things that
were debated for years.
- [Lieber] The Mayor started
seeingthe Memorial was not
coming together
as quickly or as wellas
everybody had hoped.
And he took ownership of it.He
literally stepped up,
became the Chairman of the
Board,raised the money and
started
to push the
construction schedules through.
- [Rosaleen] Mayor
Bloomberg,it's his way or the
highway.
That's what I have felt.
He's a man that cast us aside
and made us seem like
we couldn't get over our grief.
CITY HALL
- [Michael Bloomberg] People's
views change with time.
There's an emotion that, as soon
as you lose a loved one,
that it's very different than an
emotion that you have
five and ten and twenty years
later.
And we have to make sure we
don't respond to the first and
in fact,
have a better perspective.That's
not to say,
that you treat people
cavalierly or don't listen to
them.
- [Rosaleen] The Mayor and the
LMDC,they were able to say,
"Oh, look at these families."
They're constantly
complaining.And then, when other
issues came up,
"Oh, look, here comes the
families again.They're slowing
the process down."
They actually blamed us for
slowing Ground Zero down.
- [Betts] And so, they actually
stopped bugging the Mayor.
But they went to Pataki and they
found a very receptive ear in
Pataki.
- [Pataki] We always try to
include family members every
step of the way,
as decisions were made and
listen to them and when you
have,
obviously, thousands and
thousands of family members,
you're never going to have
unanimity,you're going to have
divergent opinions.
- [Philip] Just when the
effectsof the Governors' race
were winding down,
the Republicans announced that
in 2004, they'd be hosting
the Republican Convention. You
know, in Midtown, but within
kind of easy commute from Ground
Zero.
And it was clear that Pataki
couldn't allowGround Zero to b
a festering mess
of selfish infighting, as it ha
become.We need to show some
progress.
- [Pataki] On July 4th, as
fireworks burst in the sky,
ephemeral reminders of our
liberty,we will begin to reclaim
our skyline with a permanent
symbol of our freedom.
On July 4th 2004, we will break
ground on the Freedom Tower.
[applause]
- [Lieber] The Governor was in
hasteto plant his footprint at
Ground Zero.
And he had a beautiful
cornerstonewith quite a moving
inscription on it
to be planted at a spot
wherethe Freedom Tower was
going to rise.
- [Philip] First of all, towers
don't have cornerstones,
but if you wanna lay a symbolic
cornerstone, that's nice.
- [Betts] I remember it.I think
it was a media event,
it wasn't a construction event.
[music]
[marching band playing]
- [Choir] For the land of the
free,and the home of the brave
- [Choir] For the land of the
free,and the home of the brave
[crowd applause]
- [Pataki] Today is the 4th of
July,Independence day.
Today, we lay the cornerstone
for a new symbol of the cityan
of this country,
and of our resolve to triumph
in the face of terror.
Today, we build the Freedom
Tower.
[applause]
- [Lieber] Of all these
things,the choreography is
charged.
Politicians want to be seen in
photos,certain kinds of
settings,
who's in the picture, who's not
in the picture has political
ramifications.
And I guess, the vision that the
State-people had was, in the
end,
the politicians would be in the
big shot that would end up
on the front page of papers and
they didn't really want Larry in
the shot.
[choir singing]
A lot of the politicianswere
uncomfortable with having
somebody
who was a business personin
the middle of this.
But Larry, when they walked
overto the cornerstone and
inspected it,
Larry went with the flow.
[choir singing on background]
[applause]
And after it's over, I'm
walking out.
And one or two of the Pataki
aides,button hole me
and begin to really let me have
it,yelling at me, you know,
in full view of my wife, about
howLarry had ruined the shot
because
he didn't follow the
choreographyand he went with
the group
when he was supposed to,I
guess,magically disappear.
But it just was a reminder at
the timethat they had mixed
feelings
about private developersbeing
part of the story,
and about this private developer
being part of the story of the
rebuilding,
even though, we were the ones
who were building the buildings.
[applause]
- [Pataki] We were readyto go
with the Freedom Tower.
The tallest buildingever built
in America,
and the symbol of our
freedomand it was all set.
- [Lieber] But the one thing
that nobody knew was that the
Port Authority
and the Police Department had
not communicated well,
about issues concerning
security features in that
building.
- [Raab] Because that base, that
exposed base of the Freedom
Tower design
at that point, was considered by
theNYPD to be a severe terrorist
risk
and where the building was
placed,
which was quite closeto the
highway was also
perceived by the NYPD to be
lacingthe building at risk of
car bombing.
So, the building was gonna
haveto be moved, therefore
making
the cornerstone
layingabsolutely pointless.
When that communication tarted
with the Port Authority as a
matter
of first controversy and then
burial.Apparently, there were
claims
that yes, the NYPD sent a
letter, but it got lost.
- [Silverstein] How can this be,
in this modern era, this day and
age,
with communication over this,how
could this possibly happen?
The complete lack of
corodination betweem the two.
- [Ringler] If the letter was
such a big deal,
if I was on the other end of
that letter and didn't get a
response,
I probably would've gotten a
hone call saying, "Did you get
my letter?"
- [Lieber] And the whole project
just stopped that.
- [Reporter] Mr. Mayor,with
regard to the Freedom Towers,
why are security concernedjust
now being presented?
- [Bloomberg] Well, they're not
just now being, you couldn't be
more wrong.
The security concerns have been
there since 1993.
1993, there was a bombing at the
World Trade Center
and we did not learn our lesson.
This is a building,
particularly,Freedom Tower,
that is built to be a symbol.
And we are not going to rush in
to doing anything that doesn't
take into account the security
measures that the Police
Department
and plenty of other people think
are appropriate.
- [Lieber] It's impossible to
describethe frustration that w
all felt.
In fact, we had to go back and
come up with a new building.
- [Silverstein] I was crushed by
it,literally crushed.
I felt it was terribly unfair
and a tragic waste of time,
effort, energy and money,that
was needed for the purpose
of rebuilding the World Trade
Center.
- [Childs] That changed the
game, entirely.
Because we couldn't modify the
building. We couldn't move it
onto another site,
so we were in effect by that
decision
given a clean slate of clean
sheet of paper to work on.
- [Lieber] The building movedt
the east away from the road.
And then, we came upwith a
completely new design.
- [Anchorman] New York
officials today unveil the
latest redesign
of the Freedom Tower to be built
in Ground Zero with the
reinforced
concrete base for bomb
protection.The tower will be
1776 feet tall,
its proportions and external
skinrecalling the lost Twin
Towers.
- [Ringler] I could
remembershuttling back and
forth
between Daniel and David,
trying to get Daniel to say
that this is a beautiful
building
and you know, and he kept
looking in.Finally, he said,
"Yeah, I think I like it.I think
I like it."
So, I said, I called up
Governor's office and said,
"Dan is gonna say nice things. I
think we're not gonna have an
issue here."
- [Libeskind] The tower that we
have now,after all the efforts,
is even a better tower than we
have before.
It is a slender tower,it's an
elegant tower,
it's a tower that rises in a
crystal-like form--
- [Betts] Daniel Libeskind was
partof that in name only.
He had absolutely nothing to do
withwhat we now know as the
Freedom Tower.
All that's left of Libeskind's
influenceis the height of the
building.
[cameras clicking]
- [Lieber] The new design was
rolled outwithout people
criticizing it
and we were back in
business,and in fact, building
- [Anchorman] Well, today our
Federal Jurydecided that for
insurance purposes,
the destruction of the World
Trade Center was two separate
events, not one,
as insurance companies were
hoping for.
And this means the lease holder,
Larry Silverstein can collect
twice
from some companies
because separate planes hit the
two towers.
This decision is the latest
twist to Silverstein's effort to
turn his
$3.5 billion insurance policy
on the Trade Center Complex,
into a $7 billion payout.
- [Lieber] And in the end, we
ended up recovering the
equivalent of about
one and a half, $4.5 billion
dollars of insurance.
And mind you, that $4.5 billion
sounds like a lot of money,
but it's not enough money to
rebuild the office space that
was destroyed.
- [Ringer] It was decided to
approach him and say,
"Can we re-negotiate the deal
and perhaps, lessen your rental
obligations,
and return some of the sites to
the Port Authority
who would then go on and develop
them."
- [Anchorwoman] A deal must be
reachedtoday between World
Trad Center
lease holder Larry
Silversteinand the Port
Authority
which owns the land
on what to do with the
sitebeyond the Memorial.
Governor Pataki setthe March
14th deadline last year,
in an effort to getthe
rebuilding ball rolling.
- [Lieber] We gave them proposal
after proposal, we couldn't get
any response.
And they left everything to,
literally, the last two days.
- [Ringler] We got to the day of
the deadline
and our teams were working all
day at our offices.
And I was there. I was going
from roomto room and we were
progressing.
We broke for dinner and hoped
everybody would be back
by 7:00 or so, and we were gonna
continue the discussions
and hopefully consummate a deal.
And I ordered pizza out for our
folks
and we sat around the conference
table eating pizza.
As I read later, Larry and his
team were so ecstatic,
they ordered from a French
restaurant and had a party.
And they didn't come back.
We kept calling, asking, "Where
are you?"
"We're meeting with our key
people. We'll be there. We'll be
there."
- [Lieber] And we came back and
it wasabout 9:00 or so, 9:00 -
9:30.
Larry Silverstein sat down,
drank two cups of coffee
'cause he thought we were
gonna be there for a long time.
- [Ringler] And I think he and
his team, again, it's only my
perception,
felt that because there was a
deadline and that we wanted to
honor
the Governor's wishes, that
perhaps there was more nickels
on the table for him.
I walked down the hall and
Larryand his team were sitting
at the table.
Everybody's sitting around
there, smiling.
And I think I felt like an
ancient Roman going into the
Colosseum with the lions.
- [Lieber] Ken Ringler came into
that conference room, where we
were sitting.
And in very blue language, told
us to get the "F" outta his
office,
to pay our "effing" rent, and
you know, we were a bunch of
bums
and they were coming after us.
- [Silverstein] All I
remember was being surprised as
hell.
Because we genuinely were there
for the purpose of making a
deal with the Port that night,
clearly.
And it made no sense to me,
literally made no sense.
And then of course, the next
day, diffused a lot.
- [Ringler] We thought we were
moving in the right direction.
Then at 11:35 was it, Sir?-
[speaker] 11:35.
11:35, they came back with a
proposal, where their demands
were just as high as they were
before,
they're increasing their
demands, and quite honestly, in
my view,
I think they thought they had
leverage that we were going to
back down
because we wanted to get a deal
and we wanted to move the
Freedom Tower forward.
We're not going to make
short-sight a deal with Larry
Silverstein.
- [Silverstein] Negotiation with
the Port collapsed.
Next thing I know, New York
Times,
"Governor to Larry
Silverstein: Stand Aside.
You're obstructing progress at
the site."
Oh, my God.
- [Ringler] Larry was losing the
public battle.
And within days, there was a New
York Timeseditorial,
the political leaders
galvanizedaround it and said,
"No. Enough is enough."
We decided to put an agreement
together and bring it back to
Larry
and basically, not say take it
or leave it, but as I told Larry
when I brought it up to him,
"It's this close to take it or
leave it as we're gonna get."
- [Chuck Scarborough] Good
evening.
An agreement between World Trade
enter developer Larry
Silverstein
and the Port Authority,
means construction on the
Freedom Tower
could finally begin. Perhaps, by
week's end.
- [Sue Simmons] The deal will
give Port Authority control
of the long-delayed Freedom
Tower, but reward Silverstein
with three
other prime developing sites
along the eastern side of Ground
Zero.
- [Silverstein] That was when
we relinquished control of
The Freedom Tower and Tower
5and kept Towers 2, 3 and 4.
Did we think it was fair? Not
necessarily.
But the important thing wasto
keep the momentum going.
- [Lieber] What we got out of
the deal was a commitment by the
Port Authority
that they would dig the holeon
the east side of the site.
The 80-foot hole and putin the
infrastructure and fully prepare
those sites for construction.
- [Jon Stewart] If you
remember, New York City was
attacked
four and a half years ago and
since that time,
we have been locked in a
vicious battle over construction
of the
tallest, shiniest,
terrorist,tauntiest skyscraper
in the world.
[audience laughing]
The 1776 foot tall Freedom
Tower!
- [Pataki] Today, we lay the
cornerstone
for a new symbol of the cityan
of this country,
and of our resolveto triumph i
the face of terror.
- [Stewart] So that was the
sitetwo years ago.
And today...Oh!
[audience laughing]
[cameras clicking]
- [speaker] Governor, good
morning.
- [Pataki] Good morning.
Good morning. This is a great
day for New York
and a great day for
America.Today, we begin
construction
on the Freedom Tower, the final
element--
- [Betts] When the press would
start ranting and raving about
no progress,
there'd be a ceremony. I never
went to any of them.
[excavator engine running]
[applause]
- [Raab] The cornerstone had to
come out
because the Freedom Towerhad t
be redesigned.
The cornerstone had been
sitting in a plywood box.
They're taking this thing
out,not literally under the
cover of night,
but goddamn close to the cover
of night.
No one is supposed to know
that they're pulling the--
it's too much of an
embarrassment to let anyone in
the media know
that this is going to happen.
- [Reporter] What becameof the
cornerstone itself?
- [Pataki] I honestly don't
know, but to me, I thought it
would be nice
to have it in the lobby of the
actual Freedom Tower that's
constructed.
I haven't had a chance to talk
to David Childs about it.
- [Raab] My joke was always
driving to Pataki's house.
You know, and put it down his
front lawn.
Ring the doorbell and drive
away as fast as you can.
[laughs]
[crowd applauding and cheering]
- [speaker] One , two, done.
[crowd cheering]
- [Raab] One of the ironies
isduring the middle of all the
drama
back in the spring of '06,we
opened 7 World Trade Center.
- [Betts] That's the best thing
Larry did,was he went in.
He just plowed ahead, rebuilt
World Trade Center number 7.
I think that was important for
he public to see construction
and to see action
down there and to see
something coming out of the
ground.
- [Lieber] It saw a finished
product.It saw something that
was high-style
that was green and that gave
confidencethat downtown could
and would be rebornas a
business district.
- [Silverstein] And they looked
atwhat was going on across the
street.
Havoc. I mean, just
disasteracross the street,
right?
They knowing it was the
Port.Here, we finished a
building.
And all of a sudden, people
startled and said,
"What's he doing that's so
bad? What's he doing so wrong?
Maybe he's the problem. "People
started looking and saying,
"Maybe it's he's not the
problem."
[water flowing]
- [Arad] The design initially
suggestedthese Memorial
galleries,
which would surround the
poolssome 30 feet below the
plaza.
And so the idea was that you
would walk up to the--
adrift of these voids, sort of
peer down below
and then go on this very, you
know, emotionally fraught
processional experience and sort
of walking into the area almost
walking right up to the
names,which would be displayed
behind the waterfalls in
thisvery sort of quiet,
cloister-like space.
- [Rosaleen] In advocatingfor
the ranks of the firefighters,
we were invited to Michael
Arad's office to speak of that
and we were in the meeting
room, in the conference room,
and you know, all around were
aspects of the Memorial.
But there was a three
dimensional modelof the
Memorial.
And up to that point, none of u
had reallyquestioned where the
names were going.
But then we saw the three
dimensional model and we
realized
the names were gonna be
underneath the waterfalls
at the base of the
waterfalls, underground.
You would have to descend down,
almostas though, you were
goin' into the subway.
Descend down underground,into
confined space to view the
names.
And that shocked us.
Knowing now about 1993, about
2001, I will never go down.
I will never bring my children
underground at Ground Zero
because I feel it's always gonna
be the number one target site of
the terrorists.
They've come twice.
What better place than to get
usall while we're underground.
I mean, it just-- it never made
sense to me.
- [Arad] It'll be so easy for
this designto be changed in a
fundamental way.
And you know, while every
suggestion that was made,
was made by somebody who cares
deeply about the Memorial,
was not necessarily
consistent with the design that
was selected
and then I felt it was my
obligation to champion and be
responsible for it.
How do you build a moment of
silence?This is what this is.
- [speaker] Write down the
ideas, because you know, four
hours from now--
This is America's Memorial, as
they all like to say.
America doesn't know what she's
getting.
New York is on now, an American
self now.
- [Man] That's insane.-
[Rosaleen] Thank you very much.
Do you know they're
spending$1.2 billion on this?
- [speaker] On a Memorial that
nobody wants.
- [Rosaleen] We bring out the
sleeping bags
and we bring out warmer
clothes to spend the night here.
9/11 families have always been
somewhat out in the public but
this was taking a step where
people could really be critical
of you saying
that you had flipped your lid,
you know.
And you know, you could feel
that.
You could feel that, "Maybe, I'm
so deep into this.
Maybe, I'm carrying it too far."
But the first nights down
there, I knew that it was the
right thing to do.
We looked out into the vast
opennessand we could just say
this was their spot
and we're defending it.
- [Reporter] They're being
toutedas the last pieces
in the rebirth of Lower
Manhattan.
The three towers: 2, 3 and 4
will replaceabout 6 million
square feet
of the 10 million destroyed in
the attack.
Norman Foster's tower is the
largestof the three buildings.
It's taller than the Empire
State Building
and has diamond-like
panelingalong the top.
Richard Roger's toweris far
sleeker in design.
Fumihiko Maki's is the first to
be built,
will have a restaurantwith
panoramic views.
- [Silverstein] Good morning.
-[speaker] Mr. Damian, you know.
- Hello, Damian.
- [Damian] Hi.
- HI, buddy. How are you?Okay.
- [speaker] We're in deep
discussion with the Board
and the transit authority's
about that.
- [Silverstein] We have less
congestion by pulling this in
and having these out here.
All during this time, we're
plowing ahead, plowing ahead.
Because we have--Governor said
we design, finish plans,
specification and so forth for
Towers 2, 3 and 4.
We did them, 18 months we
finished the plans,
specifications, done.
All right. Ready to go. Ready to
shovel the ground.
Is this width the same as this
width?
And guess what? No ground on
which to put a shovel.
Why? Because the sites aren't
ready.
The sites the Port Authority's
suppose to deliver to us.
Not ready.
We know what it takes to dig a
hole.
But for some reason, your
people,they're taking longer.
Much longer than it has ever
been taken, right?
What's taking so long?
- [Lieber] What happened was
they hadanother groundbreaking
And they started construction
of this PATH Train Station,
designed by Santiago Calatrava.
- [Pataki] And I rememberthe
Port Authority had,
going to Santiago and saying,
"Is it expensive?" and he
said,"Of course, it is."
- [Raab] Okay, build me the
world'smost expensive subway
stop.
Two billion dollar? No, make it
4 billion.The wings are going to
open
like a dove twice a year or
maybe not.
- [Lieber] And what
increasingly became clearis
that this train station,
which they called, "The
Oculus,"because of its shape,
was actually an octopus that
was killing all the other
projects around it
because they were stickingall
their mechanical system,
their air condition, their
heating,to support this train
station,
were being pushed into other
buildings.
It was creating all kindsof
complexities and delays.
- [David Paterson] In my
perusal,just in the first days
of my administration,
I couldn't really find anyone
that knew what was being built,
who was building it, when it
would be completed
and how and what fashion it
would actually be erected.
- [worker] Wonderful time.-
[Chris Ward] Sir. Good.
- [Lieber] And one of the first
thingsthat Paterson did when h
came in,
was to replace the headof the
Port Authority
with a new guy named, Chris
Ward.
- [Ward] It's great they're all
tied off.
We wanted it to be symbolic.
We wanted it to be monumental.
That could've and
should've remained at a certain
level,
but it became to dominate the
whole project literally
right down into the ground and
when it dominated it down into
the ground,
the project lost its logic, it
lost its constructability.
- [Raab] Chris Ward's a guy
who's smart enough to come into
the office
and recognize that everyone had
been lying.
Everyone had been bullshitting
for years.
Everyone had held press
conferences, and made promises,
and none of those press
conferences meant a goddamn
thing
and none of those promises could
be kept.
- [Paterson] After looking at
the construction solutions,
that Chris Ward and the staff
of the Port Authority
have been able to establish, I
am comfortable today
by telling you that on September
11th, 2011,
ten years to the date of that
disaster, there will be an open
memorial
at Ground Zero to those who lost
their lives that day.
- [Ward] We made a major
commitmentthat the plaza would
be open
on the ten-year anniversary.
The fountains would be
functioning,the water would
fall
and that was the commitment we
made.
But it was a lot more
complicated and there was some
real fundamental
disconnects in what had to get
built and how it would get built
and who would build it, that
had to really get completely
sorted out.
- [Silverstein] Things were
sliding further and further and
further behind
as we progressed, right? As the
days went by, the days, the
months.
- [Ward] The Mayor, advocate
for he city,saw that things
were i fact, stalled,
took it upon himself to bring us
together in a Gracie Mansion
Summit.
He brought the Governors
togetherfrom both States.
He brought Larry and he brought
me there.
- [Bloomberg] When they're
not making progress, just shake
things up.
You put them in a room with a
big pot of coffee
and lock the doors with no
bathroom. You'd be surprised how
quickly
they come to an agreement.
- [Ward] It was one of those
momentsthat I'm sure the Mayor
was very, very disappointed,if
you go to Gracie Mansion,
the whole idea is you have
successwhen you leave.
But you couldn't on that day,
solve all the problems
as the Mayor had hoped we would.
- [Lieber] At some point, you
know, the anger gives way to
just depression
because you think, "How are we
gonna ever get out of this?"
[crowd cheering and applauding]
- [speaker] Let me hear you one
more time.
Wouldn't we want these
jobs?
[crowd shouting] No!
Wouldn't we want these jobs?
[crowd shouting] No!
- [speaker] The finger
pointinghas got to stop.
That's almost nine years after
9/11, instead of a shiny symbol
of
American resilience and
strength, we have a hole in the
ground.
[cheering and applause]
- [Lieber] The construction
workersin New York were so out
of work.
At this point, this six
monthsafter Lehman Brothers
went down
and we're in the middleof this
incredible economic collapse.
- [Ward] And you could take a
pessimistic view and go,
"You know, maybe this worldwide
recessionis gonna be deep.
It's gonna be long and that
we're notgonna come out of it
quickly."
We had a study that said,
"Maybe the market's not back
all the way until 2037.
- [Lieber] People were not down
for waiting another 25 years
to get the World Trade Center
rebuilt.
[crowd chanting] Build it
now! Build it now!
Build it now! Build it now!
- [Ward] It was kind of a great
moment because everybody's
chanting,
"Build it now!" And I was
like,"Who are they talking to?
They were talking to me because
I was the one guy who was there
that would answer the
question, "Could you build it
now?"
They were convinced that we
werethe ones who were slowing
i down.
- [speaker] We need the Hirsch,
Chris, Larry, the city, to get
back at the table
to find a solution so that these
two towers can be built
and they can be built now.
- [Lieber] No more excuses. It's
time for us to all put our
shoulders
so that we all work together to
get the job done.
And I think that was a game
changer.
- [Paterson] And today, we have
found an agreement
that we feel will allow us to
complete the reconstruction
of the World Trade Center's
site.
- [Ward] Wow. This is progress.
This is probably the most
important part of the project
from the
Port Authority's commitment
to deliver the plaza for the
anniversary.
We have to have this done or the
plaza will not be completed.
But you stand here and think,
"Are they gonna be able to get
it all done?"
We're doing really well. I have
no expectation that we won't
deliver
but, imagine it if we don't?
- [Jim] What's up, V.?
- [V.] How's it going, Jim?
How are you, buddy?
- [worker] I got it right here.
The one coming through from this
way here is sided.
- [Jim] Okay, all right.
[crackling metal sound]
I gotta get all the way out to
the street five feet by today,
alright?
Bob, we need those two beehive
strainers.
When you look at it like this,
it's just amazing how many
people killed that day.
Well, I lost my mother on
9/11. She was on the 94th floor
of the North Tower. I don't know
what to say.
That's just hard to imagine it's
ten years already. It really is.
It's what we have right here.
- [Arad] Reading the names up to
the plaza,
when that decision was
made against my wishes,
it felt like a tremendous blow.
And you know-- but if it is a
child, if it is your child and
it's injured,
you don't walk away from it, you
stay involved. You keep caring.
My hope is when the memorial
opens up,whatever
dissatisfaction's had been
expressed up until now, some of
this here's might be assuaged.
We'll see, I mean that's the
missing ingredient for the
memorial right now,
it's that interaction between
the public and the memorial.
And what you have right now is
the stage that's set for that
encounter.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011
[crickets chirping]
Bye, sweetie. I'm leaving now.
[door opens then closes]
You know, last night at 11:00
or so,all of a sudden I sort
of had this urge
to jump in the car and drive to
see the siteto make sure that
everything's there.
You know, sort of last minute--
You wanna make sure everything
is just right.
[Sean giggling]
- [Sean] Ahh...
- [Rosaleen] Sean?
[scraping sound]
You put on Uncle Sean's
shirt? You can put on Uncle
Sean's shirt.
- [Arad] Today's gonna be
really difficult.
But it's the moment I've been
waiting for.
- [Judey] I want that one,
please.
- [Rosaleen] Please havea
couple of bites, Sean.
I'll give Panny then, a little
bit of your English muffin.
- [Sean] They had a truck in
those bunks in the truck
and they move it into the
garage.
- [Rosaleen] You know, Daddy
went over there to see
if he could find Uncle Sean. I
don't know if you ever knew
that.
- [Judey] He did?
- [Rob Tallon] Yeah.- I never
knew that.
- [Rosaleen] It would be nice
to see Uncle Sean's name, right?
- [Judey] Yeah.
- [Silverstein] Thank you.
[car door closes]
- [Rosaleen] Guys,ain't it a
beautiful day?
- [Eileen] Oh, yes.- They had
predicted rain for
yesterday and today.
- [Silverstein] Go on,just go
pass them slowly.
Go further.
You're gonna go straight to
Denmark.
- [woman] Good morning.-
[driver] Good morning, ma'am.
- How are you?- [Silverstein]
Silverstein!
- Straight ahead, Sir.- Thank
you.
- Okay. - [driver] Thank you.
- Have a great day.- Likewise,
ma'am.
- [Eileen] He was just beaming
that morning. He was all lit up
in the house, had such a
smile.He was wearing his lovely
shirt
and then he's got on him a
white collarand he just looks
so good and smiling.
- [Rosaleen] Yes, they are very
charming.
Where's Grandma? Keep Grandma
with us.
- [Judey] Can you release my
hand.
[footsteps]
- [Bloomberg] Please join in
observing our first moment of
silence.
[bell dings]
- [speaker 1] Edelmiro Abad-
[speaker 2] Vincent Paul Abate
- Laurence Christopher Abel-
Albert Balewa Blackman, Jr.
- Christopher Joseph Blackwell
Carrie Rosetta Blagburn
- Susan Leigh Blair
[melancholy music]
- [Arad] It's easy to think
about all the strife, all the
disagreement,
to sort of focus on, "Well, you
know,this didn't go right, the
didn't go right."
Actually, the big picture is
somethingwent right, really
right.
- [Silverstein] At the end of
the day, it's a good thing to
see,
everything out moving down the
track
and getting built because this
is important to New York.
You have to develop very thick
skin,
really take a long view, a very
long view.
And praises? White noise.
- [Rosaleen] That's Sean's name
I mean, he's one of these people
listed on this memorial.
That's the shocker, I think. You
know, you say,
"God, that was my flesh and
blood that got caught up in all
of this."
- [Lieber] I don't know if the
citywill ever be whole.
The people who are lost,the
families who experienced that.
You can never put that back or
replace,but there's a part of
the city's self respect
that I think is gonna be
restored.
- [Childs] This is not Rome,in
which you wanna hold it as it
now is,
as a great historic monument,
but something which evolves and
changes.
That's the nature of New York.
- [Philip] It's an incredibly
healthy thingthat the city
responded
to September 11th in sort
of,classic New York fashion
by beating each other up
andgrand standing in political
manipulation
and you can say, "Oh, that's
awful."
Or you can say, "What a
wonderful thingthat New York
healed this big wound with more
New York."
Citing marketing concerns, the
Port Authority renamed
the "Freedom Tower" 1 World
Trade Center.
Soon after, the agency
signed a lease for 1 million
square feet
of office space with
magazine publisher Cond Nast.
The building will be the
tallest in the city and is
expected
to open in 2014, ten years
after the cornerstone ceremony.
Chris Ward was pushed out of
his job at the Port Authority
and replaced by a top aide to
Governor Andrew Cuomo.
7 World Trade Center reached
full occupancy in October 2011.
Larry Silverstein hopes to
complete the World Trade Center
project
by 2016, when he'll be 85
years old.
4 WTC will be the first
tower to open on the site in
The completion dates for 2
and 3 WTC depend on the success
of
Silverstein's leasing
efforts.
Since winning the master-plan
competition in 2003, Daniel
Libeskind
has designed more than 40
projects around the world,
including several
skyscrapers.
The cornerstone now
rests behind the headquarters of
the
company that engraved it,in
Hauppauge, Long Island.