Should New York City reconsider rebuilding the Twin Towers instead of the planned Freedom Tower?

What went down in flames should go back up in steel!

Brand new Twin Towers should be shining in Manhattan's skyline.

Not replacements, improvements! The originals were conceived in the 60's. The NYC of today and tomorrow deserves modern day, beautiful, energy-efficient, sleek towers. The new Twins should be taller, stronger, bigger, more striking, more friendly, filled with more office space and additional uses.

The symbolic icon of their appearance will speak volumes. The world will be in awe as we collectively watch two brand new pieces of America reach into the air, with all of the hope and optimism, pride and strength that the country deserves. The people who worked there LOVED working there. Honor them! The city LOVED seeing the towers there. Honor them! The country LOVED the ingenuity, courage, intelligence, and power of the originals. Honor them!

New Twin Towers for a New step forward.

With all due respect to Ken Gardner, we need to do better than a rehashing of 1960's aesthetics in the grossly overbuilt solution that he is proposing in the form of a replication of the original Twin Towers. No one is really debating whether or not something should be built on this site, the debate is instead a question about what should it be? As I stated previously, a redux of the 1960's design is beneath us as a country - we can do better. We need to respect that world-history-changing events occurred on this site, and that fact needs to be respected and reflected in a NEW development with a NEW building design that simultaneously meets marketing and cost-efficiency requirements while at the same time providing a world-class design that is unique in history and the world. NYC and the USA deserve an iconic structure that is forward-looking and captures our imagination, not a rehash of the past.

AIA Architect

I can completely understand why this proposal has so much support. The Freedom Tower as it is currently designed is ugly, and not economically viable. But I can't help but speak out on how misleading this whole story is! There is NO POSSIBLE WAY the Twin Towers will be rebuilt at this point!!! As much as I would also support such a plan, the simple truth is that construction is ALREADY UNDERWAY on Freedom Tower. Anybody who doesn't believe this just needs to look here... 211 pages of construction coverage.

There are already about 4-5 stories built underground, a massive foundation, and an elevator core that has finally broken above street level. Simply put... it's too late!! It may have taken years to get to this point, and it may not appear that much is happening because it is all underground at this point. But there is way too much investment already in place to change the plan now. For better or for worse, Freedom Tower is rising.

Apparently these comments censor web addresses... forum.skyscraperpage. com/ showthread.php?t=123628&page=211 is where those construction pictures can be found (I added spaces to avoid censorship remove them to go to the address).

Please rebuild the Twin Towers!!! Anything less is a monument to what the terrorists did to us on 9/11. If they continue with the Fraud 'Em Tower, may as well build a bronze statue of Osama to go along with it.

I saw the 2nd plane hit the South Tower, and I had a friend die in Windows on the World. But I will never support the surrender to terrorists put forward as the Freedom Tower - one of the ugliest, half empty shells of a useless building ever to show up in a nightmare. Rebuild the twins! Just as I remember them from one of my first visits to Manhattan in my teens. Make them strong, safer, greener. But rebuild them!

You missed the key point, mr1138, of the Twin Towers II plan that this foundation already built will be able to be incorporated into the new Twin Towers without too much changes and little waste of money, if any at all. It is not too late and I refuse to even accept that it might be too late. Since they fell, I have wanted nothing more than to see the Two Towers rise again, better and stronger than ever.

Some say that the Twin Towers were ugly and are a thing of the past. I wish to point out that the Colossus of Rhodes is to be rebuilt. Built over 2000 years ago and destroyed less than 50 years later, this gigantic statue was a Wonder of the Ancient World and a testament to the spirit of the people of Rhodes. Despite the Delphic Oracle (representing the god Apollo) warning them not to rebuild the Colossus, the people of that island and elsewhere have long dreamed of rebuilding it. Two months ago, it was reported that the Colossus is to finally be rebuilt after 2000 years.

The past is not something to be dismissed but to be admired, restored and treasured for and by future generations. Let us not wait 2000 years for the Twin Towers to be restored. Now is the time and no man nor god will stop us.

I understand the sentiment that they should be rebuilt, and I honestly have believed the same ever since 9/11. I'm just afraid that too much has already been invested in the current scheme. The new Freedom Tower foundation is not even in the same location as the former towers, rather on the northwest corner of the site. Further, the foundation was built with a 1,776 foot tower envisioned. To not build a structure of at least 1,000 feet on that foundation would be a total waste of the money already spent on the foundation.

But Freedom Tower's foundation isn't the only reason the Twins won't be rebuilt. The 9/11 memorial which is located on the exact site of the former towers is already WELL underway, and will in fact be completed long before Freedom Tower. In order to rebuild the Twins, the entire memorial would have to be completely torn down, which at this point WILL NOT HAPPEN.

For those saying that the economy will prevent people from wanting to work in rebuilt Twin Towers, that is just another excuse not to have them back. First of all, the economy won't be in a slump forever and it will go back up like it always does. If this was the case, then we would all be poor and be living in cardboard boxes. The part about the Twin Towers being money loosers was true at first, but it filled up in the next decade with businesses paying triple digit rents. As a matter of fact, they were three-quarters of the way filled when they first opened, which was faster than any skyscraper built before it. Why aren't there any tennants linning up for the Freedom Tower or the other buildings if it's so prestigous. According to the Twin Towers Alliance petition, there are a number of PANYNJ members, construction workers, architects/builders, and even tennants willing to return there that have signed it. Compared to those wanting to work in the Freedom Tower, that it is probably a huge margin. If anyone would like to challenge my statements please use actual facts and statistics and not some idea that you concoted at the last minute to say something, a talking point, some repeated rehetoric said by Pataki and his cronies, or even some reasearch that was possibly funded by Pataki's supporters to paint it as if it would be true.

[IMG][/IMG]

From the start i was a pro rebuilder ! My friend as well and he even made a website

Please rebuild these great towers !!
I've never been on the towers and I wish i could in the future!!

[img][/img]

I was the one who originally contacted Mr. David Shuster about possibly conducting an online poll on what was best for New York City, back in February of 2005. New Twin Towers, or the "Then" Bird-cage design of Daniel Libeskind's monstrosity, the wind-turbine powered 1,776 ft. "Freedom Tower?" To my suprise, he did in fact launch an on-line poll. The ongoing quagmire that is the so-called rebuilding process has stop. Enough is enough! Nothing will restore New Yiork City's skyline to it's former glory, other than new Twin towers. Period! It is ironic, that the very same country that supplied the 9/11 terrorists, will soon have the World's Tallest building, the Burj Dubai Tower. Come on, America, we CAN do better then the 'Freedom Tower' at ground zero.

Since September 2001 I have maintained a free and confidential "9/11 list-serv".

The "9/11 list-serv" distributes daily e-mails containing newspaper articles and other relevant information re: 9/11 issues of interest to 9/11 families, 9/11 organizations and interested individuals.

The 9/11 List-serv archives can be accessed at with the word "subscribe" in the subject box.

As a frequent tourist to NYC, I've enjoyed seeing (in the skyline) and visiting the WTC. It's always been part of the NYC experience. Not sure Freedom Tower will attract as much as the WTC complex.

I'm not a New Yorker - not even an American, I'm a Brit. but I felt the same horror as you on 9/11 and I say REBUILD THE TWIN TOWERS! I cannot understand why this was never an option. Do it. In honour of the innocents who died that day.

Its not to late, don't let the terrorists win, rebuild the twin towers!

I have said this from the first day -- put them right back up, in the same place and looking exactly the same.

The fact that more than 7 years have passed and that giant hole is still there is an absolute disgrace.

Put them right back up!

Just because I would prefer to have the Twin Towers rebuilt doesn't mean that I am against new designs like the Freedom Tower. If this was being built somewhere else, then I probably wouldn't have as much opposition as I do right now. I hate the fact that people who support it profile me like that. Of course I can say the same for just about anything just for taking a side. If I am against other major projects like the Atlantic Yards, Hudson Yards, Willets Point, Columbia expansion, and anything else that is big, then does that make me against what it offers as well as anti-developement? Should I be considered being against the troops if I am not for the Iraq War? Do I support terrorists just because I would vote for the Democrats? Does supporting Israel to exist as a nation mean that I am for aparthied and oppression on the Palestinians? Am I anti-transit just for saying no to congestion pricing? Do only heratics support same sex marriage? Does allowing for abortion make me a murderer? If I am against taxbreaks and subsidized bonds for the elite does that make me a communist? The list can go on, but I will stop there. My point of all of this just how some will keep saying these stereotypes so many times until part of it is believed to be true. Just like those trying to rewrite the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are those who are trying to rewrite how the proccess for the WTC site went and even denied the hearings that prooved otherwise, while trying to use that "You can't please everyone" to justify it as if it was what the public wanted when that was never true, plus I am a witness to those hearings. For the record I have been pro-Towers since they fell and attended just about every event that had to do with as well as writing to the media.

Opinions are like . . . . well, let's just say that everyone has one. So here's mine.

I would love to see the towers (as they were) rebuilt. With one modification. I would leave the 77th-79th floors open, as a museum/tribute to 9/11. I'd also like to mount anti-aircraft guns on top of the towers, but that's negotiable.

Thanks for allowing me to express my opinion.