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REACHING OUT: An Eiffel-like tower is
the focal point of Mayne's plan, a densely inhabited mix of
commercial and recreational spaces forming a vibrant tribute
to the dead.
The complex proposed by Thom Mayne constitutes a memorial
to the victims of 9/11, but an inhabited memorial that commemorates
the tragedy by treating the entire site as an affirmation
of the living city -- from underground transportation systems
to offices to residences. Mayne turns the skyscraper on its
side, creating undulating, intersecting horizontal tubes that
accommodate commercial office space. A skeletal, 1,300-foot-tall
communications tower wrapped in metal scrim sets the site
in the skyline. An extension of the tower descends below grade,
folding back and forth like a Jacob's ladder, facing an urban
canyon that opens the site and exposes its underground life,
with layered subway and rail systems and shopping concourses.
The complex, with a spur that reaches out to the Hudson, forms
a collar around the World Trade Center perimeter, defining
a park or outdoor room that encircles the footprints of the
original towers. The park rises to the south, above underground
commercial and recreational spaces. One of the footprints
is designed as a plaza isolated in its own tranquillity, a
pocket of reflection. An opening above the second footprint
serves as an oculus leading to an underground memorial space
honoring the dead.
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