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Thursday, June 29, 2006

The New “Freedom Tower”

Posted by on June 29 at 10:41 AM

nyc15.jpgArchitects have unveiled the design for NYC’s new “Freedom Tower” to be erected next to Ground Zero. From the AP:


Glass prisms, landscaped plazas and a lighted spire meant to resemble the Statue of Liberty’s torch are all included in the latest design of the skyscraper being built to replace the World Trade Center.

Mmm… hey dumbshit architect, NYC already has a statue of liberty torch. It’s called the “STATUE OF LIBERTY’S TORCH.” And since you’re already begging for trouble, instead of “Freedom Tower” why not just call it the “Somebody Drive a Truck Bomb Into Me” Building.

All I know is the “Freedom Tower” better have a Starbucks.


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It looks like a giant hypodermic needle.

It'll probably have three Starbucks. How many did the WTC mall have?

Instead of "Freedom Tower" they should call it the "We No Longer Have Any Architectural Ideas Unlike Europe Or Asia Tower". It's a piece of crap, sorry. This whole project has turned into a major-league national embarrassment.

I can't wait to see what happens when the morning or afternoon sun hits it and starts frying people into little piles of soot. Freedom soot.

fnarf, i could not have put it better. i'm feeling you.

Keep your filthy hands to yourself, you pervert!

What they should have done, of course, is rebuild the WTC exactly the way it was, stroke for stroke, except three inches taller. And the memorial should be restricted to a single piece of artwork, preferably a representational sculpture of some kind. Maybe a 767, or a bronzed sheet of business-paper debris with nothing but the date written on it. This monstrosity merely amplifies and broadcasts America's inability to respond emotionally to events, and how we instead fall back on bogus ritualized forms which we don't even know or care how to perform correctly.

Well, at least once it's built, NYC will finally have a significant landmark to call its own.

ugh, is it REALLY going to be called the Freedom Tower? That's just hideous.

And I agree 100% with what FNARF already posted about this. sheesh.

Of course it will have a Starbucks! What better example of American Freedom (TM) is there?

I just wonder if many companies will fight to be on the one most perfectly octagonal floor. "Ha, your floor is just a truncated square!"

That thing on top looks like a raised middle finger, which is appropriate, at least...

Can we get Freedom Fries with that?

Blah, rebuild the twin towers!

Rebuild WTC? No thank you.

All sentiments towards the tragedy aside, the WTC was an ugly complex that was poorly built and poorly designed. Anyone who spent any time in or around it could tell you that. The windows were claustrophobic, the plaza was ugly, and whole thing was sterile. It was just a miserable space. Just like something a governmental agency would build.

But this thing is not an improvement on the original either.

How about designing a bullseye on into it's upper third and inaugurating it with one of Bush's "Bring it on" speeches that seem to be o so effective in terms of actually bringing it on.
I can't decide whether it looks like a designer pushpin, or a stylized victrola needle.

I want to start a media virus that the "probe" is phallic and that homosexuals absolutely love the fact that something so phallic will be the nation's symbol of freedom...

Can I be first to complain that this thread has nothing to do about Israel?

Do you know the guy who designed the original WTC also designed that building downtown that looks like it is definitely going to come down in an earthquake? It's a fact!

They should replace it with a 3-d replica of the Liscensed To Ill album cover.

The More You Know,

If you are referring to the Ranier Tower aka, the golf tee, or the mother of all engineering fuck ups, i work in it! It sways in the wind and makes people in my office sick!

All tall buildings sway in the wind.

Yes, the WTC was a horror, and before they knocked it down it was beloved by exactly nobody, but it was functional and stood as an iconic reminder of the seventies. It was also a handy reference point visible from anywhere in the city that allowed a quick "oh shit, I'm going the wrong way" check in that easy-to-get-confused city. I suppose this thing will, too.

The single patriotic response I felt after 9-11 was a desire that whatever replaced the WTC be the tallest building in the world. Knock down our buildings and we'll build them back even taller. Keep it up and we'll make orbit, thank you very much.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that we wimped out. What a bunch of have-beens.

Anyone notice that it looks just like the Transamerica Building in S.F., more or less? Youch.

Anyone notice that it looks just like the Transamerica Building in S.F., more or less? Youch.

It's not SO much like the (former) Transamerica building, which I think stands as an awesome testiment to 70's architecture, as the WTC was exactly the opposite.

Freedom Tower? Rough.

The terrorists hate our Freedom Tower.

I think a better name would be "Big Pointy Thing Tower". Looks like it has a nice swimming pool though. Personally I think Manhattan would look better without a tower.
Just because you can does not mean you should.
But then this has nothing to do with a freedom symbol. If it did and people were sincere about a monument then it would be a park. But this is about realestate and leasing out space to make money for the people that own the site. That is why a tower is being built under the disguise of a monument.

W wrote:

"The terrorists hate our Freedom Tower."

Correction: the terrorists are *waiting* to hate our Freedom Tower.

Still.

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