In November, a temporary PATH station was opened to replace what was destroyed in 2001. In approximately two years, a new station (which is also expected to be a full transit hub, though typically the only aspect touted is the entry hall), designed by Santiago Calatrava, is to open. There seems to be more of consensus this aspect of the reconstruction that the remaining elements.
I recently visited the temporary structure, of which I cannot find a ‘formal’ review online. What I did find covered the speed of construction (just over two years, including the massive site work, renovation of the full length of the tunnels under the Hudson River, improvements to the Exchange Place stations, and new construction at the WTC site, all at a cost of half a billion dollars), what we can look forward to (Calatrava), and the relatively spartan conditions in place now. (though John Young took a tour recently and provides some insightful commentary and images).
And that’s a shame, since it seems likely that this will be the only expression in the aftermath that does service to the entirety of the event and the conflicted opinions now at work. Rational, effective, even elegant at times, what nonetheless is most striking is the pragmatic humility. Though I count myself in the apparently dwindling number that think that nothing was, and is, the most appropriate response, the intercession manages to be respectful of that belief. Nothing, in it’s most absolute form, was impossible. And so one moves forward with the least pretense and attempting to ameliorate only the most obvious and acute need: to knit back together the transit system that is one of the few remaining democratic institutions in a city that becomes more economically stratified every day. The totality of the gesture is summarized by two events: the blunt sign over the entrance that reads ‘World Trade Center PATH Station’ and the recreation of the escalator bank. The Times noted the symbolism of the latter, rebuilt in almost its exact location (though this was somewhat dictated by the fact the station is in the exact same spot, due to track runs), and the power of the former is both a shock and an almost an afterthought. With all the discussion and the relentless use of acronym or jargon (WTC, Ground Zero, et al), the name simply and defiantly asserts what had been, and hopefully does not do as an act of futility, as I fear the boundless ego of Libeskind & Co. will lead to self serving exercises of justifying the renaming of what ever new structure is created. For now, it states simply, ‘This was here, and still is.’ It seems more than enough, but we cannot live without smothering our collective conscious in over-determined kitsch, patriotism and angst. Gird yourself for sundry uses of ‘soaring,’ ‘grand,’ ‘phoenix-like’ and the rest as the concrete skeleton of Calatrava descends on a graveyard.
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WTC PATH Station.
In November, a temporary PATH station was opened to replace what was destroyed in 2001. In approximately two years, a new station (which is also expected to be a full transit hub, though typically the only aspect touted is the entry hall), designed by Santiago Calatrava, is to open. There seems to be more of consensus this aspect of the reconstruction that the remaining elements.
I recently visited the temporary structure, of which I cannot find a ‘formal’ review online. What I did find covered the speed of construction (just over two years, including the massive site work, renovation of the full length of the tunnels under the Hudson River, improvements to the Exchange Place stations, and new construction at the WTC site, all at a cost of half a billion dollars), what we can look forward to (Calatrava), and the relatively spartan conditions in place now. (though John Young took a tour recently and provides some insightful commentary and images).
And that’s a shame, since it seems likely that this will be the only expression in the aftermath that does service to the entirety of the event and the conflicted opinions now at work. Rational, effective, even elegant at times, what nonetheless is most striking is the pragmatic humility. Though I count myself in the apparently dwindling number that think that nothing was, and is, the most appropriate response, the intercession manages to be respectful of that belief. Nothing, in it’s most absolute form, was impossible. And so one moves forward with the least pretense and attempting to ameliorate only the most obvious and acute need: to knit back together the transit system that is one of the few remaining democratic institutions in a city that becomes more economically stratified every day. The totality of the gesture is summarized by two events: the blunt sign over the entrance that reads ‘World Trade Center PATH Station’ and the recreation of the escalator bank. The Times noted the symbolism of the latter, rebuilt in almost its exact location (though this was somewhat dictated by the fact the station is in the exact same spot, due to track runs), and the power of the former is both a shock and an almost an afterthought. With all the discussion and the relentless use of acronym or jargon (WTC, Ground Zero, et al), the name simply and defiantly asserts what had been, and hopefully does not do as an act of futility, as I fear the boundless ego of Libeskind & Co. will lead to self serving exercises of justifying the renaming of what ever new structure is created. For now, it states simply, ‘This was here, and still is.’ It seems more than enough, but we cannot live without smothering our collective conscious in over-determined kitsch, patriotism and angst. Gird yourself for sundry uses of ‘soaring,’ ‘grand,’ ‘phoenix-like’ and the rest as the concrete skeleton of Calatrava descends on a graveyard.