New World Trade Center design revealed

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2308543

NEW YORK -- A new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site gracefully slopes into a spire rising 1,776 feet, echoing the Statue of Liberty, images released today show.
The new plan -- which comes after months of contentious negotiations between designers Daniel Libeskind and David Childs -- retains many elements of Libeskind's original plan but appears to smooth out its most angular elements.

"We owe it to the heroes who died on Sept. 11" to build "a soaring tribute," Gov. George Pataki said as he displayed renderings on NBC's "Today" show. Further details of the design were to be discussed at a news conference.

"This represents a melding of two very, very talented creative geniuses," Pataki said.

The two architects reached a compromise design after months of feuding over the size and shape of the tower that will rise at the World Trade Center site.

Negotiations between Libeskind and Childs were contentious, but the two met a deadline set by Pataki.

Childs said they had "a spectacular time working together."

"Creative minds have different thoughts about how you do things," he said. "I wouldn't want to work with somebody who would just say yes."

The plan follows the original, asymmetrical structure proposed by Libeskind, who was originally tapped as the architect to remake ground zero. But Childs succeeded in including a lattice structure filled with energy-generating windmills at the top of the building.

The tower would include 70 stories of office space and a 276-foot spire and would be topped by broadcast antennas.

Libeskind, who created the Jewish Museum in Berlin but has little experience with major commercial projects, has likened the relationship with Childs, who designed the new Time Warner building in Manhattan, to a "forced marriage."

Richard Meier, an architect who was a finalist for the trade center design competition won by Libeskind, questioned the timetable set by the governor, who wants construction on the tower to begin next summer before the national Republican convention begins.

"We're not just talking about a building here; we're talking about a large area of the city that's being developed and there's a relationship between this new building and everything else that's going on," Meier said. "If the rest of this site is developed this way, it's going to be chaotic."