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| If you're a New Yorker, or one that cares, please read the following article, picked out from this month's Metropolis Magazine, written by the ever cynical, yet humorous(like myself), Phillip Nobel. A recent Ground Zero rendering shows how the site might look in 2013: (from left to right) Freedom Tower, SOM; 7 World Trade Center, also by SOM; Tower 2, Foster and Partners; the transit hub, Santiago Calatrava; Tower 3, Richard Rogers; and Tower 4, Fumihiko Maki. The site will be anchored by the World Trade Center memorial, designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker. Ground Zero in Middle Age |  | | | | By Philip Nobel | | | Posted November 8, 2006 | |
They say these things take time, but I was surprised by how long it took before I really grieved for September 11. I had seen the events from a Brooklyn rooftop, far away, but not really so far as I had adopted the habit of saying. An uncle who had been married in the old Windows on the World a few years after the towers were finished pointed out that in crow-flight miles it was not very far at all, and those few nearly dead downwind. Still, when asked, I would say that I had the standard experience of millions of New Yorkers not immediately affected: the blue sky and the sparkling column of smoke, the sirens heard from horizon to horizon, the double collapse, and then the silent mounting grimness of the day.
Even after several years, many of them spent at Ground Zero among the strange tribes concerned with the site’s reconstruction—even after at no little pain turning that immersion into an account running 85,000 words—I maintained that I was at home with the aftermath. The instant memorials had not gotten to me, neither massed candles nor vain posters of the “missing.” The Tribute in Light, that importunate civic grandiosity, left me blank when it made its debut the first spring after. And none of the formal memorial designs, professional or amateur, ever impressed me as the least bit fitting, let alone moving or, god forbid, “healing”: it was processed, I was done.
So imagine my surprise when I first found myself in tears at the site as late as the summer of 2006. The catalyst was not a vision of the still distant shrine-pools conceived by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, still less those dual-role future memorials—Calatrava’s train station or what’s left of Libeskind’s master plan—the effects of which, through careful imagining, I had long ago dismissed as emotionally neutral. Instead the artistic team that finally cut through my cynicism was the comparatively humble duo of David Childs and Jenny Holzer—an architect who builds with little pretension to transcend and a now hackneyed artist of the severest sterility. I should add the great E. B. White too, since it was his Here Is New York, scrolling in huge white letters on Holzer’s screen in Childs’s lobby at 7 World Trade, that finally broke me down.
I was there with my kids on a Sunday morning a few weeks after the tower’s opening. They started playing on that shiny red, somewhat obscene Jeff Koons sculpture in the new little park across the street; no one was around, and I sat down on a bench and looked west through the street-wall glass at the running text on the blast-shield wall protecting 7’s elevator banks. The screen was displaying the section of White’s essay-form love letter that discusses the island city’s tenuous supply chain: how everything has to be trucked in every day—tons of this and tons of that—and how, though it teeters on the edge of disaster, this system never fails. Three understated paeans to the city’s resilience: a simple tower, a simple screen, good words—that was the formula that at last reminded me of the miracle of New York’s being New York and the impossibility of its being anything else. The location did the rest.
When the towers first fell and, in practically the same moment, so many turned to imagining their replacement, I was appalled. Later, when I started to write about the site, I avoided proposing designs of my own, both because they were banal and impracticable—I thought it would be cool to flood the bathtub—and because I felt such activities were beyond the scope of a responsible critic. I would often say, however—as I think I wrote or at least implied here once—two things: that the ultimate form of the reconstruction was unimportant as long as the process to achieve it, from the first planning session through the ribbon-cutting, was conducted with dignity; and second, that New York should be left to be New York.
It was as obvious then as now that those two ideas were in absolute conflict—that the city could in no way be the one we love and also comport itself with a special reserve—so I concocted a third idea, one that has proved remarkably durable, by way of resolution. It is an end-around bit of post-facto justification with just a touch of convenient sophistry, but it pleased me and it works: It is a good thing, I thought, that everyone—everyone—associated with the reconstruction was behaving so poorly, thwarting and suing one another, grandstanding for political ends, that the right solution for the site would necessarily come from the accumulation of so many wrongs. We don’t want to see the blow to New York that would change its native ways.
So the process bobbed along and I mostly with it—plans were drawn, approved, and forgotten—and at length we came to early September 2006 and the unveiling of the three newest towers: the motley assortment, not too much loved in the press, by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Fumihiko Maki. With the pruned train station and the half-price, simplified-by-committee memorial, we now have a fairly complete view of what might come to pass at Ground Zero by 2012 (or, with Mr. Silverstein’s recent deadline extension, 2013). The buildings to replace the wounded Deutsche Bank, and Frank Gehry’s mysterious performing-arts center, are now the only holdout ellipses.
At first viewing, at the scales and levels of resolution presented, the three new towers—all huge, all glass—are not what anyone would call brilliant. Foster’s is a busy affair of bundled diamond shafts that strains at the top to recall Libeskind’s long-ago proposed (and otherwise defunct) notion of a spiral of prisms descending from the mother-gem of his original angular Freedom Tower. Rogers’s building, a block south, is an even more mundane affair, strapped from sidewalk to spire with busy wind-bracing. The last and smallest, Maki’s tower, is a simple composition of a rectangular base and a shifted triangular top; sleek and mute, it could be anywhere.
All three towers, in fact, might be built anywhere—Foster’s has a distinctly Dallas feel—but if they are built at all, they will be built at a site that will confer meaning on even the most anodyne object. And if they can be built as 7 World Trade was built, with a good eye, a light touch, and perhaps a splash of decent art, then we all stand a fair chance of someday seeing a whole that does justice to the events that cleared the site: buildings that may be compromised and uninspired, products of more rancor than most, that still possess the power to lift jaded New York souls.
this is just sad.....our city will look like a disney land.......of poor urban architecture. | | |
| Recent updates: Fun filled weekends: last weekend: Cape cod trip did happen smoothly and was indeed relaxing at the same time exhausting. this weekend: japanese barbecue at gyu kaku, then party til 4am in the morning at Cielo and GuestHouse left both me and joanna in complete bad shape. since i'm so lazy, please check emily's xanga instead for pictures!! she summarized it up pretty well. on the other notes, work's been mentally exhausting, just completed a SD set on the Harlem Hospital, and boy it was a mission, never knew how much work goes into putting a building together even at the very design stage. i personally believe that it must've been one of the prettiest hospital that will be built in the US, the interior is just as exciting as the exterior. this building means a very strongly cultural, historical and socialeconomical significance to the region. Since the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920's, this hospital is the first and part of a revitalization effort that is ongoing in Harlem led by Mayor Bloomberg. | | |
| Recent update....after another 2 months of intense work work and work, here's my life so far. 1. Passed the LEED exam, that's one milestone. 2. visited Penn State, Saw everyone and it was a great time. everything is so cheap there, unbelievable. Kevin, keep ya head up. Joseph, have a good time in DC. Li, keep being the God-mother. Everyone can use more advice from the almighty Li. 3. Continuously getting my ass kicked by my boss, but thankfully we finally hired more jr designers, so it's their ass getting knocked on now, saved my life a bit. 4. Just came back from Ohio State Univ. becuase of my project. It's ironic how i'm designing their medical center as a PSU grad during the week of OSU and PSU football game. And i have to lie to the client that, I'm actually from U Penn instead of Penn State due to some PR issue. I've also realized something. to be honest, I've always thought that the PSU campus really really is fugly, but their(OSU) campus SUCKED BALLS big time even more, it's such a hill-billy town, like a glorified white trash ghetto, and it's just sad, on top of that, urbanistically speaking, it's so poorly planned out, there's like 4 stadiums.....plus 3 other smaller ones with nothing else on the campus, it's just grim. 5. looking forward to a nice short vacation at Cape Cod this coming up week, gotta keep my fingers crossed that this will happen 6. Been spending more time with my babe, we've been dining out so much, i must've gained 20 extra lbs. Some recent recommendation for anyone that will soon visit NYC, try these restaurants and i'll guarantee you a good time. be prepared to take on the ninja challenge. in little Italy for late night Dessert, they're got the best selection in NYC so far. Japanese with Brazilian Fusion food, It's probably worth a trip just to check out the big-boob brazilian japanese bartender. haha j/k Unbelievable Authentic Thai food, but it's in the heart of Chelsea, and the restaurant is such a Gay boys' central....me and joanna must've been the only table in there that were heterosexual....it's somewhat scary. No website so far, but it's so highly publicized, the tiny joint is designed by Karim Rashid, and it's SUPER CHEAP for NYC standard, just to check out the design and it's already a bang for your buck. | | |
| Ok, it's a whole week late, but i just have to do this.
First of all, thanks to everyone that gave me a birthday shoutout, i'm grateful to all of you and you guys got so much heart, i am very flattered.
This has to be one of the best birthday for me ever.
Starting last friday,
double date dinner at Tao with Joanna, Rudy(Nijad) and his gf emily, his brother, and his GERMAN COUSIN, yes, and he is hilarious. His accent sounds JUST LIKE THIS
big fortune cookie again, as the only thing joanna ever crave for.
anyway, I'll update pictures from his camera later.
Then, Saturday night
Joanna took me to the Modern in MoMA for dinner. and
It was fantastic, Best freaking Steak i've had. You guys gotta go try it, i give it 5 stars.
the Prix Fix is super reasonable, it says 3 course, but we actually got 7 courses, they gave us 4 free in between course freebies, and everything was delicious.
Secondly, I GOTTA talk abou the design (if you hate design, skip reading this part)
despite all the critcs slamming Taniguchi for his design of MoMA, i actually liked it A LOT.
the restaurant is exquisite, and every single intended architectural element is visible from the restaurant: the garden, the Richard Serra and Brancusi Sculptures, the perforated ceiling...etc The entire place is furnished with Fritz Hansen's Spring collection designe by my hero, Pierro Lissoni , just the chair we sat on, ALONE, cost $3000,
(ok haters, you can start reading again)
I've been wine and dined at many different places ever since i started working, but the Modern is just like another Megu, Bravo is the word.
so in summary, it's a really memorable experience for me, for a while, i strongly recommended it to EVERYONE.
thanks again sweetie.
After the dinner,
Joanna shadily gave me and my clone a surprise party, i was completely fooled, she(as a event planner herself) got all my people came out, Carlos, even Joseph drove all the way from another state to come visit me. You guys are beautiful people.
after surprise party, it was late night supper with joseph at cinema cafe
this entry has become too long. So i'm gonna stop here, stay tune for more pictures from Rudy's camera.
last but not least,
Thanks to kevin for sending me 2 fantastic books all the way from STL, he's got so much heart, and still appreciative. the books kept my spirit alive.
Kevin Hsia has just finished his last day as an intern at HOK yesterday, let's give him a round of applause for the youngest intern ever to work there and survived through the journey.
we're proud of u son, keep ya head up. | | |
| ok, it's been couple months since i updated this forgotten blog, so i'm gonna put something down just so everyone knows i'm still alive.
I have started working right after my graduation, which is on May 15th. People always say i'm crazy, i didn't take breaks blah blah blah, but i didn't regret it, it's my choice.
If anyone has watch the movie "Click", you can picture what my life is like this very moment, and has been, and will be, like that for the next 2 years. <-- I was told that way.
It's not that bad matter fact, except you're doing exactly what you love, while getting paid for it.
After a few interesting twist and turns, i have finally ended up at where I am now, a very precise and exact place of where i wanna be, as a result of my hard work and faithful choices. It's almost funny now, because i am officially been called as a designer, an architect, but not an engineer anymore, haha YESS!
I am blessed to be working with such a fine team of people, all came from such prolific education background (Harvard GSD, MIT, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell etc.), I am certainly learning a lot because I'm the only one that doesn't have a master degree among them, haha, sucks to be me.
Anyway, my life is not that interesting, i work everyday from 8:30am to 7pm(earliest) or 4am (latest), and any hours in between, mostly ends around Midnight. So yea, i'm a workaholic not by choice, but because of the demanding, labor intensive nature of architecture.
this blog has been going on and on, so check out pictures if you want, from here:
Joanna's xanga
Joseph's xanga
The really beautiful part of my life right now, is Fridays and Saturdays, becuase now i can finally afford to live a wine and dine lifestyel, and it is fabulous.
she's been keeping a check-list too, so........(sweat........)
more pictures to come soon! stay tune.
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