Cleanup of the World Trade Center site officially ended Thursday morning, May 30, marking the culmination of a nine-month recovery effort to search for remains of the people who died during the terrorist attack on New York City's Twin Towers and to clear the area of the devastation and debris. The work ended ahead of schedule and under budget. Control of the site now reverts to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land.

The solemn milestone was marked at 10:29 a.m.—the time the second tower collapsed—with a ceremonial ringing of a New York Fire Department bell to commemorate the 343 firefighters lost in the aftermath of the attacks. Then, an empty stretcher with a folded flag was carried out of the site by an honor guard of representatives of New York City police officers, Port Authority police, firefighters, and other organizations and volunteers involved in recovery efforts, to symbolize the victims whose remains have not been found or identified.

A truck carrying the last steel beam from the site followed the stretcher. Thousands attended the ceremony, which was intended for city officials, Ground Zero workers, and victims' families.

The wordless ceremony culminated an extra-emotional week for many in New York City. During the past few months, what has become apparent is though the site may be clear of debris, the path for what will become of the Lower Manhattan complex is not so obvious.

Urban planning team named
New York City architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners LLP was chosen by the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) to help develop a plan for the World Trade Center site. The two groups made the announcement May 22 after reviewing proposals from 15 firms. Beyer Blinder Belle will be assisted by Parsons Brinckerhoff, a transportation consulting firm, and 11 other specialty design firms.

The Port Authority and the LMDC have asked the team to work with families of September 11 victims, lessees, advisory committees, area residents, and the general public to develop, by the end of the year, a plan describing proposed land uses for the site and adjacent areas. The process will go forward in three stages, the first of which will analyze proposed transportation improvement projects and develop six land use options.

The contract for the Beyer Blinder Belle team is valued at approximately $3 million. The Preliminary Blueprint for Lower Manhattan, developed by the LMDC, will serve as the planning framework.

"This team was chosen on the basis of experience, technical qualifications, personnel, and understanding of New York and the surrounding region," said Port Authority Executive Director Joseph J. Seymour. "They have also shown a striking sense of vision, personal commitment, and sensitivity to the nature of a project that is unlike any other."

Choosing the team
After some controversy about the way firms were contacted to develop designs for the World Trade Center site, an advertised Request for Proposals from the LMDC and the Port Authority resulted in 15 submissions by groups representing more than 90 architecture, engineering, and planning firms. A team representing the Port Authority and the LMDC evaluated the proposals, and invited the six highest-rated teams to make oral presentations. According to the Port Authority, the committee further reviewed the two leading submissions and made its final recommendation to the executive director of the Port Authority and the president of the LMDC, who reviewed and approved it. It has been reported that Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn was the other firm in line for the job.

Beyer Blinder Belle is an established New York architecture firm whose projects include the renovation of New York's Grand Central Terminal, Governors Island, Ellis Island, the master plans for Columbia University, the remodeling of Rockefeller Center, and renovations at LaGuardia Airport. Parsons Brinckerhoff has worked on transportation projects that include work for the Access to the Region's Core Project Farley Post Office Building Redevelopment.

"The selection of an urban design and transportation consultant to advise the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority is an important milestone in developing a sensitive, inclusive plan for rebuilding Lower Manhattan," New York Gov. George Pataki said. "During this process, we will draw on the best ideas, meet with all interested groups, and build the broadest consensus possible."

Beyer Blinder Belle will not have to start from scratch. The New York Times notes that hundreds of ideas have poured in from architecture firms, civic groups, and individuals who have their own ideas of what a post-9/11 Lower Manhattan should look like. In addition, the Times reports, Larry A. Silverstein, who holds the lease to the World Trade Center properties, has had his architects, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, draw up plans for the site, and some transportation rebuilding projects have already begun.

The Beyer Blinder Belle partnership includes:
• Olin Partnership, landscape planning and design
• Urbanonics (WBE), economics and programming
• Geotechnical Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, civil and subsurface
• PACO Group, Inc., security planning
• Abrams-Cherwony & Associates, bus transit planning
• Philip Habib & Associates, traffic forecasting
• SIMCO Engineering, P.C., traffic database
• Steven Winter Associates, Inc., sustainable design
• Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C., structural engineering
• VJ Associates, cost estimating
• The Environmental Simulation Center, Ltd., 3-D computer database.

The LMDC also is working simultaneously to establish a process, in consultation with the LMDC Family Advisory Council, for developing concepts for an appropriate memorial. The groups expect the plan to be in place by July.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.