NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

“Certainly, it’s going to have a Landfill huge effect on what we do,” said landscape architect Tom Leader, of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Tom tack that have resonated with a lot of people, and portions should be saved so that in the future when might Leader Studio, a member of one of the teams. Leader said it is difficult to get we get to the point of deciding what is an appropriate memorial, those pieces have not been carted

become a perspective on the task so soon

after the World Trade Center at­ away,” Phifer said. The ultimate disposition of the rest of the debris is also impor­

monument tack. “It requires you to think more about what’s happening in Lower tant, Sanchis continued. “I don’t think of it as rubble. I think of it as remains. No matter how hard you try, you can’t sift out everything.” Manhattan, as well as what’s hap­ ■ Some envision pening at Fresh Kills,” he said. Anyplace the debris is buried “They’re kind of linked in a way becomes “sacred ground,” he said. a memorial at they weren’t before.’’ Sanchis said he believes there Fresh Kills for Still recovering from the loss of will be several monuments to the communications in its downtown disaster, including one or more victims of the Trade office, the Department of City short-term memorials in Lower Center disaster Planning, a primary sponsor of Manhattan. Several artists have the competition, is working with proposed creating pillars of light the Sanitation Department to ad­ where the Twin Towers once dress the new conditions at Fresh stood, for example. By DIANA YATES ADVANCE STAFF WRITER Kills. City Planning spokeswoman If all or most of the debris from Robin Stein said the agency is put­ the World Trade Center is buried ting together a statement on the at Fresh Kills, “there definitely For the last 30 years of its life matter, but could not coThment should be something there. It’s not as Gotham’s garbage dump, the further. going to be the only memorial,” he Fresh Kills landfill swelled re­ Frank E. Sanchis III, executive said. “But it’s inescapable.” lentlessly skyward, gradually director of the nonprofit Munici­ Those associated with the land- obliterating iocalviev.’S-of Lower pal Arts-Society,-another sponsor, Manhattan. Until Sept. 11, only one said his organization would leave city landmark — the Twin Tow­ it to the city to determine what ers — could still be seen above should happen at Fresh Kills. the enormous mounds of trash. But the art society and others in Today that reference point is the preservation community also gone, and the rubble that was the called on those involved in remov­ World Trade Center is coming to ing the rubble to safeguard that Fresh Kills. To commemorate the enormity of the loss, some believe part of the World Trade Center’s that the former landfill would blasted metal skin that remained make a fitting site for a memor­ standing after the attack. ial to the disaster. Crews started removing the “It’s absolutely stark and very, seven-story husk Tuesday night, very beautiful,” said Harvard but Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani landscape archirect Niall Kirk­ said the removal would be done as wood, one of those promoting the carefully as possible to save it for idea. “It’s of a sufficient size and a potential memorial. scale.” Giuliani said the remaining wall Kirkwood said the expansive beauty of the site, its views of Low­ er Manhattan and the fact that much of the rubble from the World Trade Center may be buried there of Tower 2 needed to come down to clear the way for continuing rescue work. But he added, “what comes down is going to be pre­ served” in case it is decided later SXAdvcina make Fresh Kills an ideal site for to turn it into a memorial. a memorial park. As cranes pulled parts of the “It’s actually a 19th-century wall down Tuesday night, acrid idea —- the idea that a park or a smoke and dust kicked up by the type of park becomes a place of operation filled the air. Dozens of healing,” he said. people gathered behind police bar­ Six design teams selected to ricades and watched as chunks of participate in a city-sponsored the skeletal frame fell upon the competition to develop a master debris pile. plan’ for Fresh Kills are already Jean Parker Phifer, president of grappling with the implications the Art Commission that approves of thepresence of the World Trade works of art for city-owned prop­ Center debris at the former dump. erty, said preserving the skin is reasonable. “These are remnants of the at-

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