Journeys of the Questress - WTC
The Rebuilding of Ground Zero continues
Home
The Way it Was - 1
The Way it Was - 2
Sept 19 - When Tomorrow Never Comes
Sept 27 - Oral Interpretation
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 1
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 2
Oct 5 - A Mile of Tears - Part 3
Oct 11 - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Oct 28 - Each Day I Search the Rubble
Nov 12 - When Spires Fall
Nov 19 - 911 The Rape of America
Dec 14 - Just A Thought
Dec 18 - A Sense of Place
Feb 2 - Final Pass to the End Zone
March 3 - Sitting on the Edge
March 14- Do You Still Remember
March 20 - Virtual Walk-Through
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 1
March 25 - When Will It End - Part 2
April 1 - Towers of Light
May 14 - View From Above
May 30 - Tunnel At the End of the Light
May 31 - Seventeen Hundred
Aug 9 - From the Margins Erased
Aug 30 - The Train Doesn't Stop There Anymore
Sept 9 - Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Sept 10 - Just An Anniversary
Sept 12 - September Holds Great Promise
Literary Reflections
Rebirth and Resurrection
The Winter Garden Springs To Life
The Winter Garden Springs To Life - con't
Underpass to the Past
Rebuilding Ground Zero
Under Hallowed Ground
Borders
Yahrzeit
What Will Fill the Void?
I Submit a Design
Footprints in the Dust
My Memorial Design Submission
My Memorial Design - Drawings
New Path Train Station
Path Station Tour
May We Never Forget
That Which Surives
War Without End
4th Anniversary
Footprints in the Dust
Void
I Miss 9/11
Time Comes Between Us
A Thousand Cranes
Fear Factor
Love Letters On The Wall
Empty Chairs
Sitting on the Edge of Forever
Walking the Perimeter of Emptiness
A Counting of Days
For Friends Absent But Not Forgotten
Stigmata
The Memory Keeper's Promise
Unbreak My Heart
Standing On The Edge Of Forever
Both Sides Now
A Memory In Time
The Gravity of Loss
The Survivors Rise Up
Flowers Will Bloom
The Fire Within Us
The Sentinel
Stronger Than The Storm
Between the Candle and the Stars
Ghosts
A Journey Through Remembrance
Canticle of Remembrance
Beyond the Crucible of Chaos
Journey Through Remembrance project
What See We Now
Forever In Our Hearts
Keeping the Flame Alive
The Rebuilding of Ground Zero continues
Does Anyone Care Anymore?
Where Is Our Story Teller of Pain
At Memory's Edge
Dust Thou Art and to Dust Thou Shalt Return
7x7x70
Heroes Never Die
The Flame Inside Our Hearts
The Year of the Heroes of 9/11
Déjà Vu
Remembering 9/11 in the year of COVID-19
Coronavirus Decimates Ailing Sept. 11 Responders
Touching From a Distance
That Which Survives 20 years later
2021 - 20 years later
Memories of Terror Return
Putin's Name Covered Over On Teardrop Memorial
The 9/11 Tribute Museum Closes
When Memories Fade Away
St. Nicholas at Ground Z is rebuilt
The Blue Wall of the Unidentified Victims
When Time Calls Your Name
When Art Gets It All Wrong

new-banner2016.jpg

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero Continues

oculus-plaza1.jpg
Oculus plaza

Within the last month two new areas opened at Ground Zero. The Oculus, the big whale skeleton like entry to the transit system that connects not only to subways but also to a an underground shopping mall, and a one acre park, on the south perimeter, was opened to the public.

oculus-plaza2.jpg
Oculus plaza

oculus-mall.jpg
Oculus mall area

The WTC Oculus, centerpiece of the WTC transit hub – will have more than 100 stores inside the 365,000-square-foot mall space, a mix of retail, including Sephora, Cole Haan and the Apple store, and food anchors like Eataly and Epicerie Boulud. The expansive retail area takes up space inside the WTC's Oculus, as well as inside 3 WTC, 4 WTC and underground corridors linking the PATH train and subways to the streets above. Eventually, when 2 WTC opens in the next several years, an additional 90,000 square feet of retail will open inside that building. I took a walk through that space recently and was really confused as to how it “ties together” the train lines. It’s a lovely, open sunlit subterranean plaza but it has so many corridors and confusing angles and no maps to show you where you are. Yes there are signs that say “to PATH trains” Or “N train” but it’s not a logically laid out space like the original one was. Oh and lots of shops for shopping, that is if you have the cash to afford the prices.

 

Liberty Park is modeled after Manhattan’s High line and was built atop the very ugly Vehicle Security Center which screens vehicles before they enter the subterranean roads and loading docs that cross the entire trade center. The Park was designed by landscape architect Joseph Brown. Its most unusual feature is the Living Wall, a 25 by 336 foot green wall facing Liberty St. It is covered by more than 22,000 plants in 826 soil filled panels. Last month a sapling grown form the horse chestnut outside of Anne Frank’s home in Amsterdam was planted in the park. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. I found the space boring. There are wooden box like benches and plantings but visually it misses the mark. And you can’t view Ground Zero because of its elevated height all you see are the tops of trees!

 

liberty-park.jpg
Liberty Park

view-from-liberty-park-ground-z.jpg
Looking down on Ground Zero

view-from-liberty-park-museum-oculus-arts.jpg
View of 9/11 Museum, Oculus, and performing arts building

The original WTC complex before 9/11 had stores all throughout its lower level and the street level plaza between the buildings was planted with thousands of flowers and the site of numerous Summer performances. It wasn’t the most beautiful space but it didn’t try to be something it’s not. These two “modern” areas just miss the mark for me. With a park I want space and beauty, with a mall and transit hub, easy to understand navigation not modern art!