In what John Whitehead, chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), called “an important moment for our city and for our nation,” six schematic plans for the site of the World Trade Center (WTC) were unveiled today. The plans, developed primarily by New York architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle for LMDC and the Port Authority, show possibilities for street and block layouts, building massings, and building locations.

Although conceptual, the placement of some elements seems fairly consistent among the plans. For the most part, all of the schemes show buildings developed along the eastern edge of the site and open spaces of varying configurations and sizes on the western half of the site where the towers once stood. The footprint of the WTC towers is left as open space on four of the six plans.

All six have an intermodal transportation center on the eastern edge of the site along Church Street. All six have Greenwich Street connected through the site from north to south, and five of the six show future residential development south of Liberty Street.

See the July issue of RECORD for an interview with Beyer Blinder Belle partners Jack Beyer, FAIA, and John Belle, FAIA (page 23) and a commentary (page 125) by Suzanne Stephens on the lower Manhattan planning process. For a forum discussion of the World Trade Center plans, click here.

John E. Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA