on being there, and confronting far more than i ever wanted.

and seeing things that won’t ever happen now.

to me, it’s not about symbolism. or pride. or patriotism. or resolve. or power. or jingoism.

to me, it’s about the individuals, their myriad experiences and interests and motivations — all quashed by the ineptitude of some 1960s-era engineers to do something “novel” that hadn’t been done beofre, all while failing to consider the ramifications of how these edifices could take tens of thousands of individuals with them if something went awry.

which did. thrice. but it only took two of those three incidents to prove a point.

so, what to do? i honestly don’t know, and it’s really not my place to suggest anything. in essence, this land isn’t my land, and it isn’t your land. however, Woody Guthrie, if he were living now, might.

but if it makes people feel better to at least peck around the grand meaning of this hollow, but brimming space, let them propose design studies. which they are. at least they’re talking about it, and not just stewing silently over what could have been, what isn’t and why any of it even matters.

besides, art (even crappy art) can provoke discussion. i feel that, despite it not being the best thing out there, these seven attempts do qualify as at least that.

but whatever the fate of the space, i’m still not liable to step foot inside, even if i’m living in Brooklyn Heights and working in Midtown. or TriBeCa.

in all honesty, i’d rather that they not build anything in that seven-acre footprint left behind, but pragmatically speaking, we both know that they’re going to put something there, if not to appease Harry Silverstein, then to placate all the wanking amerikans who are liable to either never spend time in the city to get to know the complexity that fuels it or to come there and treat it as their very own personal “patriotic tourist shrine”.

i grew up in a city that revelled in its hubris to build an entire glass skyline in under a decade, and i can’t forget how hollow and jaded i felt when i forever left that place and the ghosts of histrocial buildings lost in their wake.

however, we’re discussing a city that pioneered vertical habitation, and that’s something which isn’t going away anytime soon. we’re discussing a lot of profoundly-coloured emotions. we’re discussing the american ethos — dysfunctional as it is — to “fix and make better what was broken”, as if nothing ever happened. we’re discussing how obnoxiouss, weathly developers get what they want with their big buxx without going for something that’s very tired or very ten minutes ago.

further, if you had a good look at the first six concepts last summer, i suspect that you’d be hard-pressed to say that these new seven studies were at least granted an ounce of creative meditation and study.

i really don’t know what’s gonna happen. but at least these studies make for good conversation and debate, which is what we seem to be having, much as you mght loathe hearing that.