WTC Architecture

Daniel Berkman over at Red Weather (one of the new magistrates on the blogroll) has an interesting post about the importance of architecture, the potential of the WTC site, and how it might be squandered:

The rebuilding of the WTC proposed an architecture that had the power to change the way people thought about space, and the way they thought about their lives... The way people wanted to talk about the WTC competition at dinner parties reflected a new prominence for architecture in the national discourse.

But architecture is a process. It is a long process and things change... The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York now says that Larry Silverstein, the developer in charge of the WTC site, plans to change the proposal to include among other things a Mall(a Westfield Shopping town to be precise), a fountain on the footprint site, and a new bland office tower(or office towers).

Oh well. Here's to hoping that architecture as art isn't really dead.

UPDATE: Here's a follow-up at Red Weather.