Students Try Site Redesign

Unveil own visions for WTC

By Julie Claire Diop
STAFF WRITER

December 4, 2002

Two weeks before the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. unveils the designs of seven teams of architects, and a week before Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces his vision for lower Manhattan, 48 architecture students at the New York Institute of Technology displayed models of what they want to see on the World Trade Center site.

Out of cardboard, wood and plastic, the fourth-year students created towers so large that they would cast a shadow over much of lower Manhattan, as well as less obtrusive buildings that would glow at night. The ideas ranged from a memorial that spanned two buildings via a tram to a memorial only accessible by boat.

Rick Bell, executive director of the Manhattan-based American Institute of Architects and one of the competition's jurors, said students often approach large, complicated projects with a fresh perspective. He cited Yale University architecture student Maya Lin, who at 21 captured the world's attention when judges picked her design for the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

Mikiko Holstein of Garden City and Todd Hassler of Great Neck, who received an honorable mention, spent the night before yesterday's competition putting finishing touches on two thin paper-and-toothpick towers that twisted more than a foot high, or about 80 stories. The upper floors house large, memorial gardens, roughly where the two planes struck the original towers. And visitors could take trams between the towers, high above two wading pools where the twin towers once stood. At night the pools would become the bases of two pillars of light.

"We wanted to build something that was a big push for the future," said Hassler, 23. Holstein, 45, added: "We are recreating the old twin towers in the 21st century style."

Twenty teams of two to three students in a NYIT design class competed for a $500 first prize. The class gives students a chance to use the skills they acquired designing individual buildings to create communities. In a previous semester, students redesigned Glen Cove.

"What they're doing is not only theoretically interesting, but contemporary," said NYIT architecture Professor John Friedman. "It's been in the news almost every day."

For many students, redesigning lower Manhattan was not only a way to hone their skills, but also a way to respond to the terrorist attacks.

Robert Paxton of Glen Cove, Anthony Pisano of Westbury and Greg Picca of Mastic, who also received an honorable mention, said they spent many hours thinking about how New York might change for the better.

They designed two towers that would capture energy from sunlight so the towers would glow at night. "At night the buildings would be their own light," said Picca, 21.

Besides building two towers, the team submerged the West Side Highway, built an Airtram around lower Manhattan, and created a new park next to South Street Seaport.

Wendy Calderon, Raejun Kim and Hyang Jim won first place, with a design that included plans for new financial buildings in the southwest, and residential buildings in the northeast. The jurors liked the design because of its feasibility, Friedman said.

Images of the models will be available on CD-ROM at the NYIT.