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WTC favorites to dwarf original
NEW YORK (CNN) -- As the countdown to choose two finalists in the Ground Zero design competition nears, two proposals to replace the World Trade Center with skyscrapers even bigger than the originals have emerged as leading contenders. Sources close to the process said THINK, led by New York-based architects Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz, designed one of the contenders, The World Cultural Center -- a pair of tall airy structures standing 1,665-feet (499.5-meter) and reminiscent of both the original towers, 1,350-foot (405-meter), and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Berlin-based Daniel Libeskind designed the other favored structure -- starkly geometrical buildings clustered around the foundations of the fallen towers and topped by a stiletto-like 1,776-foot (533-meter) spire, which would be the tallest structure in the world. THINK's Schwartz designed the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal under construction in Lower Manhattan. Vinoly, just named to redesign two buildings on the plaza of the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, designed the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and the Tokyo International Forum. Libeskind, a Polish-born American and the son of Holocaust survivors, designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the War Museum in Manchester, England, and the yet-to-be-built Denver Art Museum. Each plan features structures that would surpass Malaysia's 1,483-foot (445-meter) Petronas Twin Towers as the tallest in the world. The designs have both won critical acclaim since their unveiling. But some people who live and work around Ground Zero have expressed fear that erecting such giant skyscrapers would invite another terrorist attack. And others have wondered whether anyone would want to work in such a building. Officials with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and other agencies are meeting Monday to choose the two finalists out of the nine designs unveiled in December. But development officials said they would not make a decision until they have sifted through all of the 10,000 public comments received by e-mail and at the competition's exhibit space. The period for public comment ends on Sunday. All the architectural models and animations remain on display through Sunday in the atrium of the World Financial Center, adjacent to the Trade Center site. The exhibit has received an estimated 80,000 visitors in the past six weeks. Approximately 4,000 people have filled out comment cards. Matthew Higgins, a spokesman for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. said the finalists are likely to be announced by the middle of next week. A final choice is expected in February.
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