Plans to rebuild the World Trade Center moved another step forward September 26 as redevelopment officials tapped six architecture teams to take part in a design study of the World Trade Center complex.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced that it had selected some of the world's "most talented architects and planners," including two individual firms and four collaborative groups from a pool of 407 submissions representing 34 nations:
• Foster and Partners, London
• Studio Daniel Libeskind, Berlin
• Team: Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman, Charles Gwathmey, and Steven Holl
• Team: United Architects (Reiser Umemoto, New York City; Foreign Office Architects London; Greg Lynn FORM, Los Angeles; Imaginary Forces, New York City and Los Angeles; Kevin Kenon Architect, New York City; UN Studio, Amsterdam)
• Team: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, New York City, with Field Operations, Philadelphia and New York City; Tom Leader, Berkeley, Calif.; Michael Maltzman, Los Angeles; Neutelings Riedijk, Rotterdam, Netherlands; and SANAA, Tokyo; together with artists Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Rita McBride, Jessica Stockholder, and Elyn Zimmerman
• Team: THINK (Shigeru Ban, Tokyo; Frederic Schwartz, New York City; Ken Smith, New York City, Rafael Vinoly, New York City with Buro Happold Engineers, Bath, England; Jorg Schlaich, Stuttgart, Germany; William Moorish, Charlottesville, Va.; David Rockwell, New York City; Janet Marie Smith, Baltimore.

The LMDC also announced that a six-member review panel, which included Richard N. Swett, FAIA, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark and the only licensed architect to serve in the U.S. Congress in the 20th century, identified seven semifinalists in the shortlist. The review panel, which was recommended by New York New Visions, a coalition of architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and other design organizations, remarked, "The panel left the three days of deliberations decidedly encouraged by the potential work these teams might produce."

The semifinalists are:
• Ken Greenberg Architects; Alliance; Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner; ARUP, NY; and Mueser Rutledge
• Ian Simpson Architects, Ian Simpson and Rachel Haugh, principals
• Eric Owen Moss Architects, Eric Owen Moss, Principal, lead firm; Coop Himmelblau, associate firm; Peter Sellars, Artistic Director, associate firm
• Bernard Tschumi Architects; Leslie Robertson Associates, structural engineering; ARUP, transportation; Michel Devigne, landscape architecture
• Santiago Calatrava
• Smith-Miller + Hawkinson architects; Julie Bargmann, landscape architect of D.I.R.T. Studio; Ralph Lerner Urban Design and Sam Schwartz Company, traffic and transportation design
• Sasaki Associates; Dennis Pieprz, urban design; Alistair McIntosh, landscape architecture; Alan Ward, urban design/landscape architecture; Kathryn J. Madden, planner/managing principal.

The six finalists will each receive a $40,000 stipend to create plans for the site and surrounding areas based on new, more flexible program requirements being developed by the LMDC and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The LMDC released a new request for proposals in mid-August that opened the process to licensed architects, planners, and landscape architects. The new program requirements include a range of commercial space, a powerful skyline element, the creation of a grand promenade, and the exploration of residential housing on or off the site.

At the end of the study, LMDC and the Port Authority will select from the study what it deems to be the most promising ideas and invite those firms to work with their consultants to refine and develop them into site-plan proposals. By the end of the year, the LMDC and Port Authority will present at least three new site-plan proposals for public review. A final land-use plan is expected to be released in spring 2003. Terence Riley, chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art Department of Architecture and Design, another member of the panel, emphasized the importance of choosing a design team whose plans had a vision for the entire site rather than focusing on a particular aspect of the complex. The design, he said, must center on a "large piece of a large urban area."

Praise for the process
"The selection process by which the six firms were chosen represents an historic moment," said Ric Bell, FAIA, executive director of AIA New York. "The panel of peers recommended by New York New Visions has picked a diverse group of architects and designers who are linked by the quality of their prior work, their inclination to take risks, and their demonstrated ability to think in new and different ways."

City and state officials also applauded the architects' and designers' innovative work. "I am pleased that we have been able to attract the caliber of excellence exhibited by the group assembled here today," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

LMDC President Louis R. Tompson said, "The public demanded bold and creative visions for the future of Lower Manhattan, and this new talent ensures that we will deliver on our promise. The forward-thinking leaders at New York New Visions played an invaluable role in the selection of thoughtful panelists, and in turn the panelists took their responsibilities in full course by choosing an outstanding and innovative group of professionals."

Bell echoed those sentiments: "We hope and expect to see design concepts that are significantly different from each other, engage the public's desire for design excellence, and lead to open dialogue among all parties involved in the rebuilding effort."

—Tracy Ostroff

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