From Kooky's posted link in Part Four:
The towers were the centerpiece of an urban renewal project intended to revitalize lower Manhattan. Construction began in 1966, and the first tower formally opened four years later. The architect was the late Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the Century Plaza Towers in Los Angeles. The twin 110-story towers cost their owners, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, $700 million. Last July, they were leased to a New York real estate firm for $3.25 billion, one of the largest such deals in history. At the time of their opening, the towers were praised as technologically marvelous but aesthetically soulless.
Stung by that reaction, Yamasaki insisted to one architecture critic that his buildings would "soothe" the human spirit. "Above all, with political turmoil, traffic problems and vast increases in populations and the tremendous impact of the machine, we must have serenity. Man needs a serene architecture to save his sanity in today's world."
Tuesday, those humane sentiments were reduced to rubble and ash.
It's really hard to describe exactly what the New York Skyline means to New Yorkers. It's a very different way from how people who visit New York see it, or people who moved here but weren't born here. The Twin Towers opened for business the year I was born. They've always been there, we wake up over in Brooklyn and look out and see them dominating the Skyline, or we take the trains/drive over the bridge (Brooklyn/Manhattan/Williamsburg)and the Skyline is there. It's not just a bunch of buildings or a marketing scheme. It represents my city and my home.
This morning my pal and I were talking about how we couldn't wait to get back to Brooklyn, and she invited me over for a bottle of wine later (in thanks for letting her crash last night), and then stopped short. She then said, "I was just going to say we could look out at the Skyline from my window. But the Towers are gone."
I don't think I'm expressing this well...sorry  |
