"Freedom" Rising...

I copied this on the second page of comments because one guy actually fingers Silverstein/Israel. One person subsequently responded to that comment in typical fashion and I appended that one comment at the end...

March 16, 2009, 10:23 am
When Are They Going to Build the New World Trade Center? Just Look Up
By David W. Dunlap

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

The steel framework for the south core of 1 World Trade Center has reached more than 100 feet above Vesey Street. The north pool of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is taking visible shape. And by the end of the month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expects to have placed an order for 22,000 tons of steel to build the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.

It seems safe now to say that the new World Trade Center is under way.

That doesn’t mean that it is anywhere close to completion. But the battleground has shifted largely from offices and conference rooms to the 16-acre site itself and the task of engineering and assembling an interlocking three-dimensional puzzle that begins 70 feet below street level and is to culminate at a point higher than any other in New York City.

The memorial plaza is to open on Sept. 11, 2011, followed by the underground memorial museum and Tower 4 in 2012; 1 World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, in 2013; and the transportation hub in 2014. Less clear, as the economic storm gains force, are the fates of Tower 2, Tower 3 and Tower 5. And it never hurts to add the caveat that a lot of surefire plans at ground zero have been foiled by circumstance.

Taking that into account, The Times plans to follow construction (or delays) over the next few years in a series of video reports, beginning with this one. These reports will focus on the big milestones, on the fascinating details that must be resolved, and on the many men and women who are building the new trade center. If you have a few years to spare, stay tuned.
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26. March 16, 2009
1:18 pm

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Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building were both built during the Great Depression, and both initially struggled to find tenants.
However, in retrospect, they are indisputably iconic. Construction during tough times may be easy to mock on a website, but history counters that the said projects offered hope, tangible jobs & intangible inspiration, to a city mired in the worst of times.

— Fleischer

27. March 16, 2009
1:22 pm

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shame on all the politics surrounding this issue
former and present mayors, governors and other
‘civil servants’ should be blamed for these unreasonable
delays!!!! their legacy will not be ‘rebuilding’ but ‘inefficient and ineffective leadership’….and i am sure they will be cutting all the ribbons in the near or not so near future….what a shame!

— igorny

28. March 16, 2009
1:24 pm

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Progress? They’re still pile-driving. Ask anyone who lives in the neighborhood who’s trying to put their kids to bed before 11 pm.

And, by building useless office towers again, rather than a park/complex celebrating religious freedom via its inclusion of a Christian church, a Jewish temple, a Mosque, a Hindu temple, or etc etc, the US has missed the chance to flip the bird at theo-fascists worldwide …

— Dean Rave

29. March 16, 2009
1:25 pm

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I really, really hope the risible “Freedom Tower” will slink away and people will refer to One World Trade Center. Such a ridiculously, totally vacuous name.

— Deeka

30. March 16, 2009
1:28 pm

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As much as I want to see an important building built there, I have to ask, what do the people involved expect to do with all that office space in this town, in this economy, and with all the currently available space available in midtown and downtown. If WTC 7 is anything to go by, these things are going to end up being big beautiful and empty for a while to come.

— glinck

31. March 16, 2009
1:32 pm

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“Freedom Tower” does sound rather grasping. I would prefer “Memorial Tower”.

— Breuk

32. March 16, 2009
1:33 pm

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I hope Larry Silverstein has his spent his 4 billion in insurance money from 9/11 wisely.

I for one think the fact that the memorial is Israeli designed, when they were most likely complicit (mossad/urban moving systems, odigo warnings, and dancing/filming israelis) is a disgrace to the dead.

The name of the building would make Orwell proud.

— Peter M

68. March 16, 2009
3:43 pm

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Message #32 talks about making Orwell proud.

Message #32 would make HITLER proud!

Throughout the history of the world, whenever bad things have happened, people have always found excuses for scapegoating the Jews.
Message #32 follows that hallowed tradition.

— Jerrold