News article on Trade Center transit hub design contract

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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The Station Master An Architect s Grand Vision for a Trade Center Transit Hub By OAVID W. DUNLAP In hiring Santiago Calatrava to de­ sign the new transit hub at the World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey thought . 11 V' large. And to his first public words about the project. Mr. Calatrava made it clear that he, loo, would think large — on the scale of Grand Central Termi­ nal and Pennsylvania Station. Old Pennsylvania Station. “Those places are gates to the city,” iw! 11 he said in an interview on Monday, 10 days after signtog a contract to design . tp the $2 billion transit center, in partner­ ship with the STV Group and DMJM & Harris. “New York City has a tradition u1u i of great stations. There are cities in the world that don’t have that. New York ! I *

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Saatiago Calatrava

has it.” . - ' While short on specifics, Mr. Cala­ trava described a structure that would have “the most universal character” of any at the site, something above and beyond a PATH terminal, though that function will be at its core. He envisions ■ ■

a civic gathering place that would be open 24 hours a day, pulsing with life .. and movement, sending people out into the city, greeting travelers from the airport, discharging commuters to EMKCto Mslagambfc nearby ferries and even sheltering visi­ Train platforms at the Orient Station in Lisbon. The architect, Santiago Calatrava, tors from the rain. said their sort of monumentality might be appropriate at the PATH station. “Of all the buildings, this is more devoted to the everyday person,” said Mr. Calatrava, 52. a Spanish citizen who lives part-time in Manhattan and sometimes walks through Grand Cen­ tral just for the pleasure of it. He deflected speculation about what the PATH terminal might look like, an inevitable question since his designs are renowned for sinuous curves, ab­ stract. monumentality and sometimes anthropomorphic or zoomorphic forms. Because his buildings also tend to resemble freestanding sculptures, it would be perilous to guess how success­ fully Mr. Calatrava can cope with con­ striction, “This station will be different than anything else I’ve done,” he said. “I don’t remember having had to work in such a dense, dense core of a city,” Asked whether his fluid and flowing style might be incongruent with the Wotfau-Druck AG more crystalline forms of the master plan for the trade center site by Studio The train station at Satoias Airport Danie! Libeskind, Mr. Calatrava said: in Lyon, France, might suggest de­ “We wilt certainly work within the signs to be adopted downtown for master plan. But you see, if you look at the new PATH transit hub. Continued on Page B(> Barbara Burgahd Oliver Sdnih/P»»adtum Photudcstgn

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