Home    Yesterday's News    Contact Us     Subscribe

Today's News - February 27, 2003

One of ANN's sources said, "The vote went quickly." The unconfirmed news was on the AP wire by 6:56 last night - just in time for Peter Jennings to announce it at the end of World News Tonight (right after "Mini-millions," a report on the fortunes spent for models to win competitions - the focus was Viñoly). Of course, the official announcement comes at 11:00 a.m. this morning (Lower Manhattan time). The question remains: how much of Libeskind's design actually has a chance at being built? John King proposes an even broader question: "What comes next? Not just in Lower Manhattan, but to skylines across the United States." We would add "across the world."

What is apparent to us in this emotionally-charged saga of the World Trade Center site is that it has not only galvanized the 'vox populi' of New York, but has brought to the front page of even the smallest local papers important issues raised by developments of every scale and impact. The public is letting its voice be heard - and in many cases, it is being listened to. What is most encouraging is the public vocabulary that now includes "bold" and "visionary." There can be no turning back. -- KR

Elsewhere in the world: Tampa museum redesign impresses. -- Big names will compete to school design templates. -- Duct tape and the future of architecture. -- An eye-catching tram on the horizon for Portland? -- Museum wins and woes in Beijing, Philadelphia, and Ottawa. - Scottish Parliament building raising celluloid eyebrows. -- Skylines by Speer (the younger). -- Bureaucratic preservation (now there's an oxymoron for our times). -- An architect goes green in his own backyard. -- It takes more than an Aeron chair to solve ergonomic ills.