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Today's News - July 23, 2002

If we seem to be a bit top-heavy lately on news and opinions about the development plans for Ground Zero, it is because we consider the process of resolving the issue as important (if not more so) as what is finally decided for the site. The commentaries (and tirades) raise questions - and challenges - that apply to communities, large and small, everywhere in the world.

Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis magazine and a co-founder of R.Dot (Rebuild Downtown Our Town), eloquently asserts the need for an "architectural masterpiece." NY Newsday calls the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. "as toothless as a newborn babe," and says, "If the Port Authority gets its way, the public will pay a terrible price." On the other hand, the NY Post claims that "Altering the rebuilding project as the critics want would have long-lasting negative repercussions." And John King from the San Francisco Chronicle must have been sitting next to Paul Goldberger from the New Yorker at Saturday's "Listening to the City" town hall - and taken copious notes.

Elsewhere: Forbes List of the World's Ugliest Buildings is amusing (if you're not on the list): "Critics have a soft spot for Yale's [Paul Rudolph-designed] Art and Architecture Building (probably because so many of them went there)…" John Pawson's "commission of a lifetime" is the Novy Dvur Monestary in Czech Republic. It looks like Sydney is setting itself up for cookie-cutter condos. Sir Norman Foster's "erotic gherkin" is called a "kinder, gentler office building" (maybe the LMDC should read this one!?). The final approval for Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed 42-story Heron Tower indicates a possible go-ahead for Renzo Piano's 66-story London Bridge Tower (dubbed The Shard). China launches a multi-billion dollar airport program…and much more.