LMCC Chooses Six Design Teams

With help from a panel of architects and designers, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has chosen six teams to pursue proposals for a new design of the World Trade Center site and surrounding area. From member station WNYC in New York, Marianne McCune reports.

The six include a firm from London, one from Berlin, and four teams with architects from New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, London, Amsterdam, and Tokyo, among other cities. All six are to come to New York within the next two weeks to be schooled on the site's requirements. Their proposals will NO LONGER have to include 11 million square feet of office space on the site, a requirement some thought hampered creativity in the first round. The teams WILL be urged to preserve the footprint of the towers for a memorial, design a powerful skyline, and create a grand promenade on West Street. Each group will come up with multiple proposals, from which the LMDC and Port Authority plan to pick a total of three by the end of this year.

For WNYC, I'm Marianne McCune

List of Firms/Teams:

1. Studio Daniel Libeskind, Berlin, Germany

Previous Work: - Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany - Imperial War Museum, Manchester, England - Extension to the Denver Art Museum and Co-Development, Denver, Colorado

Quote from Submission: The act of building is an entirely optimistic one and New York deserves, despite and because of the tragedy of September 11th, to have an architecture which is exciting, thought provoking and innovative.

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2.Foster and Partners, London, England

Previous Work: - New German Parliament, Reichstag, Berlin, Germany - Commerzbank Headquarters, Frankfurt, Germany - Swiss Re Headquarters, London, England - Metro System, Bilbao, Spain

Quote from Submission: New York deserves something great. Something which looks to the future with an enduring and classic quality, which will become a symbol once again for the city itself and the optimism and cohesiveness of the inhabitants of New York City and the American people.

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3. Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, and Steven Holl

Previous Work:

Richard Meier The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California Federal Building and United State Courthouse, Islip, New York

Peter Eisenman Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio Paramatta Rail Link, Sydney, Australia

Charles Gwathmey Morgan Stanley and Co., World Headquarters, New York, New York Guggenheim Museum, Renovation and Addition, New York, New York

Steven Holl Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland New Residential Community, Schipol, The Netherlands

Quote from Submission: We view design as a discovery process that begins with a rigorous inquiry into the particulars of location and program that results in an evolution, transforming problem-solving into art.

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4. UNITED ARCHITECTS

Reiser Umemoto (New York, NY); Foreign Office Architects (London, England); Greg Lynn FORM (Los Angeles, CA); Imaginary Forces (New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA); Kevin Kenon Architect (New York, NY); UN Studio (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Previous Projects: Lehman Brothers Headquarters, 745 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York ((Imaginary Forces) Yokohama International Port Terminal, Yokohama, Japan (Foreign Office Architects) Transformation of Kleiburg Housing, Biklmermeet, The Netherlands (Gregg Lynn FORM)

Quote from Submission: The terrible destruction of the World Trade Center site created both an imperative for commemoration and the need for development. Ground Zero is the last place any of us want to think about as a project', the last place any of us want to see developed', in that cynical, shortsighted manner that the word has come to mean. And now it has to be the first question.

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5. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) (New York, NY) with Field Operations (Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY), Tom Leader (Berkeley, CA), Michael Maltzan (Los Angeles, CA), Neutelings Riedijk (Rotterdam, Netherlands), and SANAA (Tokyo, Japan) together with artists Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Rita McBride, Jessica Stockholder and Elyn Zimmerman.

Previous Work: New Pennsylvania Station, New York, New York (1998-2005, unbuilt) (SOM) MoMA QNS, Long Island City, New York ((Michael Maltzan) Gifu Kitakata Housing Stage 1, Stage 2, Motosu, Japan (Sanaa)

Quote from Submission: Like New York, our design team is at once global and local, visionary and practical, mindful of history and willing to question it.

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6. THINK Shigeru Ban (Tokyo, Japan), Frederic Schwartz (New York, NY), Ken Smith (New York, NY), Rafael Vinoly (New York, NY) with Arup, Buro Happold Engineers (Bath, England), Jorg Schlaich (Stuttgart, Germany), William Moorish (Charlottesville, VA), David Rockwell (New York, NY), Jane Marie Smith (Baltimore, MD)

Previous Work: vTokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan (Rafael Vinoly) Curtain Wall House, Itabashi-Ku, Tokyo, Japan (Shigeru Ban) Whitehall Ferry Terminal and Peter Minuit Plaza, New York, New York (Frederic Schwartz)

Quote from Submission: The role of memory in the construction of our City is as crucial as the proof of its constant renewal. The central problem of this project is not simply how best to remember those that perished in this tragedy but how to make their memory the inspiration for a better future.