WTC Records Folder 0123 Clippings label, Sept 2001

By Philippe de Montebello ven as the rubble NYC-WTC_000137057 hauled from the mains of the Trade Center, tion of Sept. 11. Teplica of the once-controversia trum, Pete Hamill, the slowly — and ever so agonizingly — being e is under way about what might be built on the ravaged site of the incomprehensible destruc- rom many in the business com- munity has come a plea to summon Our most defiant optimism and erect a new skyscraper, perhaps even a win towers. At the other end of the e Metropolitan Museum of Art. Philippe de Montebello is director of York Daily News columnist, has urged that a park be encouraged to blossom there. From others we hear an equally compelling proposal: Dedicate this now sacred ground to a work of art memorializing the thousands of vic- tims of this month’s horrors. Some have already begun speaking of commissioning such a work. But no matter what form the re- construction of the site takes, New York should make a commitment now to preserving the searing frag- ment of ruin already so frequently photographed and televised that it has become nearly as familiar to us the buildings that once stood there. This is the huge, skeletal and jagged steel fragment of the World Trade Center and its facade that still stubbornly stands in the midst of the utter destruction of ground zero. Though tilted slightly, it somehow survived, emerging from the fire and smoke of Sept. 11 — inexplicably durable, still pointing to the heavens and now a fitting, realistic and mov- ing monument to those who died there. Already an icon, it should A fragment of the trade center should be saved. stand forever as a sculptural memo- rial, incorporated into whatever oth- er structures or landscapes are cho- sen as fitting for this site. There is ample precedent for this approach. Coventry enshrined its ‘The Iconic Power of an Artifact blitzed cathedral; and Berlin and Hiroshima, among other cities, con- verted ruins into monuments. The World Trade Center catastro- phe will unquestionably challenge artists, as well it should. Great new art may yet provide us with solace, hope and healing. But the surviving remnant al- ready constitutes a solemn and au- thoritative statement. It will almost surely need to be dismantled, but whatever our business and govern- ment communities decide to build on its hallowed ground, serious consid- eration should be given to preserv- ing and reinstalling this imposing vestige. A relic of destruction, it could be- come a testament to renewal. As a symbol of survival, it is already, in its own way, a masterpiece — and so it should remain. D VY 7ithes 97/25/0/ NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document