Features

What If 9/11 Never Happened?

WE WOULDN’T LOOK UP
Robert Ivy
editor-in-chief, Architectural Record

What if 9-11 Never Happened?
Slideshow: What Remains
The Survivors Circle
The Long Funeral
From the Archives

I don’t think the ordinary citizen would have cared so much for the city as a physical place. It was obvious that the perpetrators looked at these buildings as symbols, so New Yorkers turned to architecture to heal the gaping wound. Ordinary people are now able to comment on the work of Santiago Calatrava, Daniel Libeskind, and Frank Gehry. It changed our perception of what it means to be a city dweller—people aren’t just letting developers dictate the future anymore.