Lower Manhattan rebuilding blueprint excerpt, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

A Survey Reveals Sentiment For Keeping Shafts ofLight By DAVID W. DUNLAP Having gingerly and gratefully agencies and victims’ family mem­ For some New Yorkers, however, grown reaccustomed to the nightly bers as a brief, finite gesture. losing even a spectral representation sight of two brilliant columns over “Having made a set of commit­ of the trade center might be painful. Lower Manhattan — a compass point ments,” Mr. Barwick said, “they “As comforted as people are by on which so many lives have turned ought to be honored.” There are seeing this anchor, they are very — some New Yorkers seem reluc­ practical considerations, too. "This unsettled by the fact that it’s tempo­ tant to lose them again. was conceived using rented equip­ rary, ” said Gustavo Bonevardi, who Since March 11, 88 searchlights ment, borrowed materials and tem­ worked on the design with John Ben­ mounted at Battery Park City, just porary structures on land that does­ nett, Julian LaVerdiere, Paul Myoda, west of the World Trade Center site, n’t belong to us,” he said. Richard Nash Gould and Paul Ma- have cast parallel shafts into the sky The city is deferring to the Munici­ rantz. every evening after dusk, as a tem­ pal Art Society on whether it would “Everyone is questioning why it porary “Tribute in Light,” scheduled be feasible to resume the installa­ has to go,” Mr. Bonevardi said. to last two more weeks. Sometimes tion, said Jennifer E. Falk, deputy “Now that it’s done, we feel that it they ascend endlessly. Sometimes press secretary to Mayor Michael R. belongs to the city. If that’s what the they merely tickle the bottom of low Bloomberg. Only then would there be people want to do, we’re excited, clouds. a fuller discussion and public review willing and eager to help in having But they have definitely struck a of whether it should be continued. them come back.” chord. Besides design, financing and engi­ It is clear that even an ephemeral “It’s a clear path to heaven,” said neering, such a review would have to “Tribute in Light” has left an indeli­ the architect Ralph Mancini of Man­ account for the impact of search­ ble mark. cini Duffy, whose office was in the lights on neighbors and on the birds Richard A. Kahan, co-founder of trade center’s south tower. “It made that fly around them. Take the Field, a nonprofit group me feel as if we were still there. It The New York City Audubon Soci­ devoted to rebuilding athletic fields made me feel connected to a lot of ety is strongly opposed to prolonging at public high schools, was on the US people. It was a way for me to guide the Installation, said a board mem­ Airways shuttle from Washington them to God. It was magnificent.” ber, Peter Rhoades Mott. Observers the night after the lights were first “I wish the lights could stay on have not found any dead or injured turned on. until the first person moves into the birds around the site since March 11, “The pilot was announcing it to new design of the trade center,” he he said, but have noticed that most everyone 50 miles away from New said, “as a symbol we’re all togeth­ change their flight patterns. York: ’Those of you on the left side of er.” “Extending the ‘Tribute’ would the plane in 10 minutes will have a Mr. Mancini, it turns out, is not spectacular view of the memorial alone. substantially increase the likelihood of catastrophe for migrants,” Mr. lights,”’ Mr. Kahan said. “All of a “At least for the time being — and sudden it struck me that for the pilot, maybe for all time — New Yorkers Mott said. Based on a five-year tally this was part of the American land­ want those twin beams of light to around the World Trade Center, scape in the same way as other great soar,” said Maurice Carroll, director some species most at risk would be national monuments.” of the Quinnipiac University Polling the American woodcock, hermit Institute. He released a poll yester­ thrush, gray catbird and black- day showing that 39 percent of 1,038 throated blue warbler. registered voters in the city feel the The project has won over some who were initially opposed. Anne Pasternak, executive director of Cre­ ative Time, a public arts group in­ volved in coordinating the “Tribute A temporary tribute in Light,” said she had heard praise from someone who once feared the strikes a chord. A lights would make ground zero look

oyT like a used-car lot. *path to heaven, ’ But Ms. Pasternak says she ex­ pects a debate if there is a move to says one resident. make the memorial permanent, per­ haps along the lines of whether twin light towers commemorate Ameri­ lights should stay on until a permanent memorial is built and that 36 percent feel the lights them­ selves should be permanent. can economic dominance rather than lost lives. Even some of the project’s earliest supporters question how well it 3-99- Twenty percent feel the lights would work permanently. should be turned off April 13, as “Everyone I know felt the thing planned. And that is what will hap­ that made it so strong was its imper­ pen, said Kent L. Barwick, president manence,” said Agnes Gund, presi­ of the Municipal Art Society, the . dent of the Museum of Modem Aft. chief sponsor of the project, in part She said the beacons are “very spir­ because it was approved by various itual now, but after a while it would feel like either they should be sub­ community groups, government stantial or not be there.”

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