[Narrator] I think in some ways the skyline of a city
can be compared to a human face
that you can read into those features,
an enormous amountof the city' personality.
- New York is a city of tall buildings,
that's its essential identity.
- The Twin Towerswere limited in many ways,
but they were maximum skyline.
And for a lot of people,
they were partof orienting yourself in New York,
'cause you could see themfrom almost everywhere.
And with it gone, you feel that loss
and I think in the end,
it's a struggle for New Yorkto get its city back.
♪ [Everything Is Broken by Bob Dylan] ♪
♪ Broken lines broken strings
♪ Broken threads broken springs ♪
♪ Broken idols broken heads
♪ People sleeping in broken bed ♪
16 ACRES
♪ Ain't no use jiving
♪ Ain't no use joking
♪ Everything is broken
♪ Broken bottles broken plates
♪ Broken switches broken gates
♪ Broken dishes broken pots
♪ Streets are filled with broke hearts ♪
♪ Broken words never meant to b spoken ♪
♪ Everything is broken
- [Scott Raab] New York City's responseto 9/11 and the immediate aftermath,
was exemplary. It was just--I think wonderful, in terms of people
genuinely opening their heartsand literally, in many cases,
embracing each other. People who had nothing in common except geography,
suddenly realizing they had everythingin common and they were a family.
One community.And I think that's fantastic.
And I think it felt great at the time.
You know, it didn't last forever.It wasn't ever going to last forever.
It would be nice, you know,to have that Kumbayamoment,
just go on and on and on and on,ain't gonna happen,
ain't ever gonna happen,and it ain't ever gonna happen here.
[loud horn]
Here you have perhaps the most valuable16 acres on the face of the earth.
And suddenly, it's gone.
And these 16 acres at the center of the Cosmos, are empty.
And fair game, what fills that vacuum,depends on who you are.
And the tug of war began immediately.
- [Reporter] "Less than two months ago,Larry Silverstein's real estate company
spent more than 3 billion dollars to lease
the World Trade Center Towersfor 99 years.
Last Tuesday, he not only suffered a professional loss
when the landmark buildings came crashing down,
but a personal one as well.
Several of his employees are among the missing.
- [Larry Silverstein] I've had the most gut wrenching experience of my life.
And to lose, for my people, their families,the devastation that's been wrought
to that part of Manhattan.
- [Reporter] Many people see that site now
really as hollowed ground
because there are thousands of bodies that are entombed there.
I mean, should we build a structure on that site?
-Well, I believe we should.
[phone ringing]
Hello. Oh hey, David. How are you?
- [Philip Nobel] Larry Silverstein was vilified immediately
as the greedy developer,because people in New York
don't know any other kind of developer.
- [Silverstein] It wouldn't surprise me,
if the replacement of theTwin 110-storey towers
ultimately results in the creation of four towers.
Perhaps, 50, 55--maybe 60 storeys in height.
- [Philip] The first thing he did was he came out with a plan for the site.
A kind of a sketch plan for the site that rebuilt all of the square footage
to the inch and then threw in a little park.
And that was a week after the attack.You know, too early.
Then, he told the Wall Street Journal
that it would be a tragedy for him not to rebuild.
- [Silverstein] It came down,I think a day or two later.
And it was-- God,it was awful. It was awful.
I mean, you couldn't describe it.And there were firemen all over the site,
trying to find comrades,policemen trying to find--
I mean, it was excruciating.
- [Philip] One of the things people forget about the event and the re-development
is this little special period of time,between the Tuesday of the attack
and the Friday when George Bush came to town.
There is a sense, I think, among,you know, I don't think was alone
in feeling of that it wasan open narrative.
- [George Bush] I want you all o know--you can't go any louder.
[people laugh]
- [Philip] Then Bush came to town on Fridaythe 14th and he was touring site
and someone, he was speaking to the hard hats
who are cleaning the place up,standing on this pile of God knows what,
and someone said, "I can't hear you."
And he said, fairly famously,- [Bush] "I can hear you."
[everybody laughs and cheers]
"I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you and the people--
[cheering continues]
and the people who knocked these buildings down, will hear all of us soon.
[all cheer]
- [Philip] As this was an attack onour freedom narrative, came into being,
pressure on the site, in addition to all the other things
that go into a construction site,the pressure on the site became,
"This is our responseand it ha to be defined."
In a context, where it's alreadyvery difficult to do anything,
the site was being askedto do the impossible.
No commercial office building that I know of,
in the history of officesand commerce, has ever been asked
to also be a symbol of defiant renewal or a symbol of vengeance,
or a symbol of healing, you know.That's just not what skyscrapers do.
All of a sudden, there's this ideathat this building is somehow going to
do something architectural, the illmagically make everyone fee better.
- [Mayor Giuliani] I really believe weshouldn't think about this site out there,
right behind us, right here, as a site for economic development.
and we should think abouta soaring monumental, beautiful memorial.
This could be a place that gets remembered
a hundred and a thousand years from now.
Like the great battlefields of Europe and of the United States.
We have to be able to create somethinghere that enshrines this forever.
[crowd applauding]
- [Raab] When Mayor Guiliani gavehis farewell address, he suggested
that nothing should be rebuilt here,that it'd simply become a memorial.
A large, serene memorialto the people who died on 9/11.
There was never any chance of that happening. I think the Mayor knew it.
I think the proof that he knew it was to create the LMDC,
the Lower Manhattan DevelopmentCorporation, in order to pass that
along to George Pataki, for fear that a mayor, who was not a Republican,
was going to succeed Guiliani.
ALBANY
- [George Pataki] The LMDC was right after September 11th.
Mayor Guiliani and I sat down and said,"We're gonna need massive assistance.
We're gonna have help from Washington.We're gonna have insurance proceeds.
And we need a vehicle, whose sole purpose,so they won't get distracted, will be
to make sure that the funds are appropriately targeted.
- [Reporter] The Governor of New York is central to what eventually happens
in Lower Manhattan. Here's why.Two agencies, the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation and the Port Authority control the process
and New York's Governor controls half of each.
- [Philip] There's no single person involved with the re-development
who had his much sway on it as George Pataki.
He achieved that positionby creating the LMDC
and initially packing it with is cronies and using it as almost like, control rods
to change the pace of the process.At some point, he would slow it down,
at some point, he would speed it up,
purely to suit his needs at any given point,
which were profound,because he was running
for re-election during the process.
- [Reporter] Here in our area, jury will begin deliberating
over how much money will be available
to rebuild the World Trade Center Complex.
Developer Larry Silverstein is suingseveral insurance companies claiming,
the attack on Twin Towerswas two separate events.
The insurers say it was one.
Billions of dollars are at stakeon the outcome.
- [Silverstein] First issue. One event,two events. We needed, as it turns out,
we needed two events, because to rebuild the Trade Center,
the cost to rebuild the Trade Center
would require, not just $3.5 billion,it would require closer to $7 billion.
Right? We needed more money.
- [Roland Betts] I thinkhe was preoccupied with this
bizarre legal theorythat there were two buildings,
so therefore it was two separate incidentsand therefore,he had to double his return.
Most of us in the LMDC thought just logically, that would be a silly result.
You know, you have insurance policy on two buildings for a set number.
I don't see mathematically, how you're gonna end up with more than a set number.
- [Janno Lieber] People argued about ita little bit, like it was common sense,
but believe me, anyone who has readan insurance policy knows
it's not a common sense industry,it's all about the specific language
and what it means. And in fairness, that was essential to protect the possibility
of rebuilding, that somebody talked about,
"How are we gonna get the money to do this?"
The result was that Larry was a typecast, I think, early on in the process,
as somebody who was fighting about money,while people were worrying about
human loss and then about whether we were gonna build something great.
And Larry was off fighting about money.
- [Silverstein] They did everything they possibly could to excoriate,
to criticize, to denigrate. It was just a constant flow.
Talk about, needing a thick skin for that, let me tell you,
I just had to get thick fast.
Born in Brooklyn, it was nota very pretty part of Brooklyn.
So, probably not one of the best,probably one of the worst
I remember we lived at the top of a--either a six or a seven story walk-up.
It had the best view, but you had to walk up.
It was not a very luxurious existence.
My parents, obviously, were struggling. And then after that, I went to NYU.
And by this time, my father gravitated into the real estate business.
He became a real estate broker. He read someplace that real estate
was a foundation of wealth,so he decided to become a broker.
I said, "The guys who make the money are the guys who own the buildings."
I said, "We could become an owner."
I remember finding a buildingdown on East 23rd street,
so I remember finding how much it was.
Six-hundred thousand it was for the building.
Six-hundred thousand, where do you get $600,000?
So what we did, we went to the peoplemy father had successful leased
stores and lofts to. And then,I had made the pitch.
They only joined us for a small investment in the building.
And one after one another,finally said, "yes."
And we bought buildings, bought langer buildings and we renovate buildings,
we altered them, we modernized them.And then, ultimately, it led to finally
being the foundation. Pour in the slab and building the building.
- [Lieber] 7 World Trade Centerwas developed in the early 1980s,
because the Port Authorityhad piece of land,
just north of the World Trade Center siteand they decided to develop it.
And Silverstein won the bid.
And so, all of a sudden, Silverstein was at a new level.
- [Silverstein] I rememberat the topping out ceremony of 7,
looking up at the Twin Towers,and saying to myself,
"God, look at this."
But my building's big. It's a 2 million foot building.
It's a big building. But, look at that stuff, huge.
And there are two of them, right? Massive.
I said, "Wouldn't it be fantasticif someday I'll own those?"
Got it done. Hence, therein started the odyssey, six weeks before 9/11.
- [speaker] I think the Towershould be built back.
I think it should be built tall,as tall, if not taller.
I like to comment earlier about a library. I always said I wanted a school.
- [speaker] You could also have an exhibition hall.
You could have a concert hall.There's enough room there.
- [speaker] How could you build on sacred grounds?
The whole site should be a memorial.
- [speaker] Our new World Trade Center Towers must be at least 111 storeys tall.
[crowd applause and cheers]
- [Lieber] People are starting to think about what's going to be created there.
And ultimately, there's a debateabout what should happen
at the World Trade Center site, which is classic New York,
with everybody taking very strong opinions
that pull in totally opposite directions,
where a lot of different people arefighting for the one thing that they want.
What ought to be rebuilt there? How do we respond to 9/11?
- [Rosaleen Tallon] I should call Sally and tell them I'm two minutes away.
Excuse me. Sorry.
See, if you get behind these slow people, you know.
- How are you doing, Rosaleen?- Good to see you. Hi, Dorman.
[people chattering]
Good morning. My name is Rosaleen Tallon.
This is my mother, Eileen.
We lost my brother, Sean Patrick Tallon. He was a probationary firefighter
at Ladder 10, which is the firehouse at the World Trade Center.
If you look at Oklahoma city, those families are really an integral
part of the process to decision-making process.
So, to say at a minimum, that's what we're asking.
Include us in the process.
Because to this point, we have not been included.
[dog barking in distant]
[kids playing in distant]
We knew he was always going to beeither a policeman or fireman
It was just, you know,as they say,"It's in the Irish."
The first tower collapsed. And then, we arrived home
and we watched the tower on TV and we knew that Sean was up there
because his company would've been first on the scene.
So, there was no doubt in our minds that he was in there.
I remember standing at the precipice,right outside the firehouse door.
These people are buried inside there.
I mean, loved ones. I mean,knowing Sean was in there,
I mean, my God, like looking at that pile,
and knowing that my little brother was in there
and there wasn't anything I could do about it.
Because of the enormity of what happenedand all of these people died in there,
my parents were definitely hopingthat the site could, say
be a green field of remembrance
But we realized that wasn't going to be.
There were too many commercial and real estate interests that
you know, they had to build back up their square footage.
- [Pataki] One of the thingsthat people don't appreciate is that
there was an enormous economic falloutafter September 11th.
We lost a 100,000 private sector jobs that morning.
We lost millions of square feetof office space.
Companies were leaving New York,so it had to get built.
And the initial plan was,let the Port Authority do it.
THE PORT AUTHORITY
- [Kenneth Ringler] I was having dinner at a local pub around the corner
from my apartment and somebody was sitting next to me and they said,
"So, what do you do?" and I said,"Well, I run the Port Authority."
And they said, "Does that mean you do the bus scheduling?"
And I had to explain that the Port Authority
was a little more than the bus terminal.
- [Lieber] Port Authority built the Lincoln Tunnel
and George Washington Bridge
and many of our biggest transportation facilities
and also built the World Trade Center.
- [Silverstein] I obligated myself to paythe ground rent o $120 million a year
to the Port Authority for 99 years,
which is like in perpetuity with no abatements of any kind
'cause no one anticipated the 9/11 event.
- [Kenneth] You know, it stuck in his craw that he had to do that.
But, the fact of the matter is,he was insured to do that.
It's called business interruption insurance.
And you continue paying your rent.
- [Raab] Here is Larry Silverstein paying,
I think, $10 million a month ground rent at nothing.
2002
- [Reporter] The plans are moving aheadto rebuild one of the buildings
destroyed in the World Trade Center attacks.
7 World Trade Center collapsedseveral hours after the Twin Towers fell.
The owner of the 47-storey buildinghopes to break ground o a new structure
on September 11th.
- [Silverstein] So, once we starteddesigning the building,
people came out of the woodwork and said,
"Silverstein, you're crazy.No one's gonna come back down.
I mean, this is foolhardy. Second of all, you got that burning mass
immediately to the South area,it's ground zero. It's a mess.
I mean, how is anybody gonna come back around? It's foolishness.
I mean, you're really doing yourself irreparable harm."
- [Lieber] 7 World trade Center,we were able to get the building going
very quickly, because it wasjust us and the Port Authority
and that was it. We didn't have to deal with
a ton of different government agencies. Across the street was totally different.
On the city side, we had the Mayor,the Economic Development Corporation,
the Industrial Development Agency,
the Departmentof Environmental Protection,
the Department of Transportation,Department of Design and Construction,
the Police Department,the Fire Department,
the Buildings Department,the City Council and
the Local Community Board.
On the State level, we hadthe Empire State Development Corporation,
the Departmentof Environmental Conservation,
the State Historic Preservation Office,
the New York State Department of Transportation,
the New York State Officeof Emergency Management,
and then, even at the Federal level,we had Congress,
we had the White House,
Department of Housingand Urban Development
the Federal Departmentof Homeland Security,
FEMA, SBA, EDA, OSHA,
and not to forgetthe Army Corp of Engineers,
so it just went on and on and on.
- [Betts] I started calling meetings of the heads of all the agencies
and Silverstein's is on. And the meetings had 50, 60 people in the room.
It was completely unworkable. Tremendous cross currents.
Silverstein and the Port Authority wanted a 10 million square feet of
office space and at the other end,some victim families wanted this
to be hollowed ground.They wanted nothing.
There was another groupthat said that they wanted to see the
Twin Towers rebuilt exactlyas the Twin Towers.
From the beginning, I was pretty pessimistic
that this could actually be coralled.
- [Raab] Once the site was cleaned up,people expected something to arise
magically from the dust. Hey,it's New York City,
let's get it done yesterday.
But I don't think people get the complexity of the site
especially below grade and the fact that it's literally a couple hundred feet
from a big river and that it ain't easy to keep that river from pushing
through the earth on this site. And in fact, that was one of the
most daunting, if not the most daunting challenge of the original building,
the original Twin Towers was,how do you keep the Hudson River out?
- [Announcer] The site actually consistedof water log landfill
which had accumulated over two centuriesout of old wharves an debris.
To support the great weight of the towers,foundations had had to be dug
down 70 feet to bedrock.An underground wall was built
completely sealing the site.Excavation began.
- [Pataki] Given the ownership, given the emotion,
given that the technical engineering challenges,
you couldn't have a more difficult site. But everybody knew that.
And it's what you have.
- [Betts] What we decided to do was, engage a firm called, Beyer Blinder Belle.
And so, Beyer Blinder Belle came in and they became the architects of record.
- [Philip] They were hired by the LMDC to just crunch the numbers
and show what could happen spatiallyin that place, using these numbers
dictated by Larry Silverstein's lease.
With this big pile of square footageand this kinda little area,
what are we gonna do and what's possible?
So, Beyer Blinder Belle was working on these designs and the public
desire for a meaningful, symbolic architectural solution reserved
building through the months and they happen to converge in public
in the Javits Center, in this very hi-tech, super managed,
so-called 21st century town meeting.
- [Reporter] Six proposals are on the table. Today, 5000 New Yorkers
will have a chance to voice their opinions about those plans
at a meeting called, Listening to the City.
[people chattering]
- [speaker] The footprints is not to sort of acknowledge some great
architecture, but the place is sort of charged with meaning
and so many loved ones in layers, that it is one way to have a somber,
yet, not offensive memorial.
- [speaker] I just wanna see as much left that was there before September 11th,
still there after this scariest memory constructed.
- [Betts] And everybody could participate.
They had little computer boards there.Everybody could vote for anything.
And everybody could talk and so on.
- [speaker] Sometimes, when you lookat all of this, you wonder
"Where's the memorial?"
Have we just moved on and created tax-free shopping days?
- [speaker] We don't like the fact that green as an isolated rectangle
with buildings around it.- Not enough green.
Go back to this drawing book.- Strongly, this is strongly helpful.
- Get new architects.
- [Betts] And the comments in real time,would show up on a screen
'cause the typingwould show right up there.
And then people would votefor what they like and didn't like.
And somewhere about two-thirds the way through the meeting,
a comment showed up on the screen saying,
"I hate all these plans.They look like Albany."
Okay, and I really think that captured the day
because I think everybody looked as if, "Yeah, they kinda do."
- [Pataki] It was a perfectly good plan for a site that didn't have
the emotional and historic importance to America.
But from that sense, it was unacceptable. So at that point, we said no.
- [Philip] After the Beyer Blinder Belle plans were essentially shut down,
you know, publicly, at the Javits Center, the Pataki messaging machine
was in a little bit of a crisis because the election was approaching
and the idea that he "wasn't doing enough at Ground Zero fast enough."
had already been injected into the campaign.
And then, there was a moment of the LMDC
sort of casting around, saying, "What now?"
- [Betts] I called an emergency meeting of the LMDC and I said,
"Look, we gotta scrap this thing.This is nowhere. These plans stink.
Everybody knows they stink. And we gotta do something."
"Okay, well what do you wanna do?"
I said, "I wanna have an architectural competition. A true competition."
- [Pataki] We are going to go out and have a process
and engage some of the world's greatest architects.
- [Philip] And the next step was to seek out the visionaries.
- [Announcer] The LMDC is now lookingfor new international design teams
to come up with still more conceptsusing broad guidelines that include,
a tall symbol or structureseen in the skyline,
the footprints of the original Twin Towerswould remain undeveloped.
- [Philip] By the following December,every network in the world,
set up to film this dramatic unveilingof the new future of Ground Zero.
- [Betts] We're about to seeseven very different vision
by some extraordinary thinkers in their approach to the restoration
of hope and optimism to Lower Manhattan.
- [Architect] We tried to make with these united towers,
what we call, "The City in the Sky,"which at the 60th floor.
These towers come together and join.
- [Architect] The two tall towers in the middle are at least 1400 feet tall.
They symbolize triumph. They're sort of universal.
They're standing there on big shoulders with their hands in the air.
- [Architect] A natural fact. It's two towers, which kiss
and touch and become one.
- [Daniel Libeskind] When I first startedon the competition everybody had an idea.
Every New Yorker, every member of the family, every uncle, aunt, niece,
nephew, every acquaintance. When they found out that I was doing it,
"I have an idea. Do this, do his."And it suddenly occurred to me
that this was really not just an architectural issue,
it was an issue of the soul of people,
because everyone was somehow, part of that day.
- [Betts] We had a broad spectrum,
but it was clear that there were two that emerged.
One was Daniel Libeskind and one was Rafael Viñoly.
- [Rafael Viñoly] We started this process, essentially by defining
for ourselves a principle, what we felt was moral obligation,
which was not only to remember the ones that perished in this tragedy,
but also, to use their memory to elevate our memory
to become the inspiration for a better future.
- [Betts] The Viñoly plan was very, very different.
The Viñoly plan had these round cylinders,if you will, that yo could see through.
The idea was that they were preservingas a hollowed ground
the space in which people died. Well, this was spunky.
This was really different and really interesting.
- [Viñoly] The skyland of Manhattan isre-structured, re-constructed
with the icons of the public life.Thanks.
[crowd applause]
- [Betts] I'm now happyto present Daniel Libeskind.
[applause]
- [Libeskind] Thanks. Thank you very much.
I arrived by ship to New Yorka a teenager, an immigrant.
and like millions of others before me, my first sight was that of the
Statue of Liberty and the amazing skyline of Manhattan.
I have never forgotten that sight or what it actually stands for.
This is what this project is all about.
- [Philip] Everyone had been looking for a leader or you know,
someone to put a non-political, non-bureaucratic face in the process
and all of a sudden, arrives this guy with the perfect back story
and you know, the ability to present it, you know, super effectively.
- [Libeskind] I grew up in Poland. Then to America, where my father had
his only surviving sisters who were an Al Fritz, from a family
of ten brothers and sisters, so he was determined to come to New York.
It represented everything that peopledreamed about and it still does.
Those who are lost have become heroes. To commemorate those lost lives,
I created two large public spaces. The park of heroes and the wedge of light.
The sky will become home again to a towering spire 1776 feet tall,
creating an icon that speaks to our vitality in the face of danger
and our optimism in the aftermath of tragedy.
- [Philip] When asked to do this thing, which is so impossible
that it's almost magic, you know, architects can fill in the difference
by attaching words to the project. People understand words.
And Libeskind's architecture always comes heavily loaded with words.
And the design he presented at Ground Zerowith the matrix of heroes
and the wedge of light and the towerthat through a tight, somehow spoke
about the Declaration of Independence.
All of that stuff bridges the gap betweenwhat can be, you know,
very funny looking architecture and thingsthat real people can actually understand,
because "I'm gonna make you feel better about September 11th,"
is not a thing that a building can say.
- [Libeskind] It's 1776 feet high, very important and it is not just about
nations, it's about ecological zones, ecological regions.
The twenty upper storeys will be developed into very spectacular--
it's like a park standing vertically and of course--
- [Philip] Daniel Libeskind readthe political landscape perfectly
and pitched to the city in the worldand the powers that be, kind of merging
of you know, a hip architecture that was also flag-waving.
[crowd applause]
- [Betts] I was so engaged in it.I thought it was phenomenal
But I didn't knowwhat other people would think.
So, I went home that night and I started looking at newspapers
and I looked around tomorrow morning's papers.
I looked, there's a site where you can find every newspaper in the world.
And I must've looked at 300 that night.I did it almost all night just looking.
I just can't believe it. I tell my wife,"Look at this, God."
You know, in the middle of nowhere, Malaysia... and here it is.
One or more of those imageswas on the front page
of every newspaper in the world
And I think that wasn't lost on Viñoly and Libeskind
and somebody was gonna win and therefore,the stakes were unbelievably high
and they wanted to win. So, it did get a little naughty.
- [Philip] After Libeskind and THINK were sort of selected as finalist,
there was, you know, campaigns of muttering.
- [Libeskind] You know, everybody wants to win and you know, if you're naive,
you don't know what kind of forces are arrayed against you.
There was not a minute that it was just, "Go, relax."
You know, meditate. It was a constant passionate sort of struggle.
- [Philip] And the kind of things,you know, that sort of rovey
on political tactics,taken into the world of architecture
and being propagated by amateurs. So it was a good time for all.
- [Lieber] It was blood sport and these guys were going for the biggest prize
the architecture had ever seen.And there's a lot at stake for that.
- [Philip] Libeskind had chosen to leave the pit empty, preserved as a memorial,
so his opponents started whisperingthat it was a pit of death
and an open grave and kind of,you know, there's a lot of ways
to see how that gesturecould be perceived as inappropriate.
And then, the THINK team went out know, very high up in the air
with these open steel-- kind of Eiffel towers, so the Libeskinds
started saying that they wereskeletons in the sky.
- [Betts] So, we finally came to the point of determining who we wanted to win
and we chose Viñoly's plan.
- [Libeskind] It was early in the morning.I remember being i a car,
taxi in New York, going somewhereLower Manhattan and the headline,
the day before the competition was to be judged in the New York Times
was "Scheme selected, scheme ex-selected."
Was that my scheme?
And of course, when I read that headline, I was crushed.
- [Pataki] I remember waking pin the morning seeing the front page
of the Timesthat the LMDC is going to choose the Viñoly plan and going,
"No, this can't be." Because I thought, the Viñoly plan,
one was, unbuildable, two was,economically unsound and three,
were the footprints where had theseskeletons really rising into the sky
that to me symbolize the destruction of the past,
instead of the hope of the future.And I just thought it was a terrible idea.
- [Betts] He just ripped Viñoly's plan.And he said it looks like these oil tanks
in New Jersey and no one's evergonna want to walk in there,
or they're gonna fall down,jus all this stuff.
So now, we were in a pretty awful position here because the LMDC had voted,
not just as a site committee,but as the full LMDC
and expressed a clear preference for Viñoly and basically,
Pataki came in and kinda just pulled the rug out from under the LMDC
and you know, he just reversed the decision.
- [Pataki] How are you? Good to see you.
- [Libeskind] Great day. This is a great day.
- [Betts] And so, in a sense,the Libeskind plan became his plan.
- [Libeskind] It suddenly dawned on me what immense responsibility I have.
It wasn't just all great. Oh my, god. Now, with these few lines on paper,
how am I going to be able to do what I promised to do?
- [Announcer] Out of this gaping woundin of the heart of
the New York Financial Center, wherethe 1300 foot tall Twin Towers once stood,
an even taller building will rise.
- [Pataki] The design plan has an inspiring spire.
- [Libeskind] It is the biggest challenge.The most profoundly moving
emotionally intellectual, architecturally spiritual project
I've ever done here, of course.
- [Philip] For three months, Libeskindgave Pataki everything he needed.
[Libeskind laughs]
He got in front of any camera and told a gripping story
and there was imagery to attach to it.
[bell ringing]
And he was ringingthe right political bells
and everyone was happy.
Except for Larry Silverstein.
- [Lieber] Larry actually preferred Libeskind's entry to the others.
But once it became clear that Libeskindwanted to design the building,
in addition to being the master planner,we did get into a little conflict with him
because Libeskind had done a coupleof buildings of moderate size,
some architecturally dramatic ones,including the museum in Berlin.
But he had not done a skyscraper,he had not done very tall tower,
which is a completely different exercise.
- [Betts] What Libeskind was picked for was the master plan.
He was not picked to design and build skyscrapers, something he had never done.
- [Lieber] So, as Larry Silversteinexplained to Libeskind once when
we were having a meeting, he said,"Dan, if I'm gonna have open heart
surgery, I wanna have somebodywho's done it before.
And a building of 1700 feet in height,is the architectural equivalent
of open heart surgery."
And Dan's wife, who is his partner,you know, in his practice said,
"He's a quick learner," and Larry said,
"Not on my heart, you're not gonna learn how to do open heart surgery."
- [Silverstein] This meeting's over.We're done.
She says, "Don't get excited."
I said, "I'm not excited," I said,"Just wanna say this meeting's over.
I'm having no further discussion about the redesign.
It's off the table. Finished.
- [Libeskind] Here's a man with money,with power, with the idea that
it belongs to him, he had his own ideas with his own architects.
- [David Childs] Larry came to me and he said, "Your trade in life,
what you're a specialist is, is tall office buildings.
I need you to do this."
- [Lieber] Larry announced the truth,which is he's gonna do the building
with the architect he chose,which is David Childs,
from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
He did the Worldwide Plaza building,
he did the Bankof New York Operations Center,
he's done a lot of big buildings.
- [Libeskind] David is a, you know,very accomplished, very powerful
architect running a firm of thousands of people.
You know, it was really kind of David and Goliath.[laughs]
- [Childs] It was a functioning, operating office building in a capitalistic society.
This was not just a piece of sculpture there in the air.
Some time in the middle of the summer,we were summoned to a meeting
at the offices of the LMDCand there was a negotiation.
- [Philip] Libeskind and Childs were literally thrown into a room together.
- [Childs] You've gotta have somebody in charge. You can't have two generals.
You've gotta have one that has 51% of the vote.
And so, that's what I insisted on.
[people chattering]
- [Libeskind] This is not a press conference. This is a photo op.
- [reporter] Have you ever seenhappier faces in your life
- [Silverstein] Once or twice.- [Libeskind] It's a great day.
Fantastic collaboration.
Wait, we have to roll up our sleeves. We gotta get to work.
- [Childs] If body language says anything,this is the picture.
- [reporter] What's the reality
- [Libeskind] It's real, it's real.
[cameras clicking]
- [Silverstein] Okay, let's go.Thank you.
Right behind you.Keep going, keep going.
- [Libeskind] David, they want us--- [Childs] This is our scheme,
see how well-- [Libeskind laughing]
- [Lieber] But it was very clearfrom the beginning that these guys
did not look at things the same way.
Childs and his team would present,you know, technical issues
and how they propose to solve them or options for solving them
and Libeskind's comments tended to be focused on more ethereal,
symbolic and general issues, you know. I think Dan said,
"The top has to be more meaningful."And that you could see
that Childs' blood rising.
- [Childs] I think that in fact, that Libeskind thought that he would have
a more of a role than I was gonna be somehow change and be willing to
just execute his role as a designer.Frankly, Larry wouldn't permit that.
- [Libeskind] He's an industrialist.He wants to make profits.
He has an empire, you know.It's not the philanthropic enterprise,
it's how to create profits,which I appreciate.
Now, what would New York be if people were not entrepreneurial
to want make money. But that often came into tension with other ideas.
- [Pataki] When our work is done,the history of Lower Manhattan
would have been written, not by the terrorists
who attacked our city,
but by the millions of New Yorkers,who stood up to defend it.
By the 5th anniversary of the attack,September 11th 2006,
we will top off a new icon.The 1776-foot tall Freedom Tower.
[applause]
- [Raab] My vast--people close to the governor,
was that political calculation or a spur of the moment,
naming it, "The Freedom Tower."And the best answer I've heard
is that it had been discussed,but no one had really signed off on it
and no one was sure of it until it came out of his mouth during the speech.
- [Pataki] What is 1776?It's a symbol of our freedom.
It's the year we proclaimed our independence.
So it just made sense that word just kinda fell in and fit the building.
- [Philip] There's a letter in theNew York Post that was brilliant.
The letter said, "This building s nothingbut a perch for Georg Pataki
to climb up and gaze offin the direction of Washington."
And that was true. Pataki was actively using the process to further
his political ambition as any politician would.
- [Pataki] Good morning.We're here today for the unveiling
of the model of the Freedom Tower.
When Daniel Libeskind revealed his master site plan, the idea was
to create a building, the tallest building in the world, yes,
but symbolically, 1776 feet tall.But mostly today, is a celebration
of the successful collaboration of two brilliant architects,
who understand that this is not just a building,
this is a symbol of freedom.
So to Daniel Libeskind and to David Childs, congratulations.
[cameras clicking]
[applause]
- That's it?- That's it.
Don't trip now as we go on there.
[people chattering]
[cameras clicking]
[people chatting]
- [Philip] When Libeskind and Childsallegedly started working together,
the kind of face saving design that cameout of that, had this big stick on top.
And that stick and the numbers 1776 were the only thing
that survived of the original Libeskind concept.
They presented this huge modelthat was 10 feet tall or something.
It lit from within and who nowshow much money was spent o it.
And as they were moving it out of the Federal Hall,
where they had the presentation,the S-1 guys broke the stick off,
so it could clear the door, you know.
And that was the last we saw of Danny's stick.
- [Rosaleen] No matter what people talk about,buildings or their real estate,
Ground Zero is ground zerofor what happened there.
So, the most important thing was how we were gonna remember
what happened there to those people.
- [speaker] And this eternal flame will be visible, just like the tower was,
so you don't have to come to this memorial to remember what happened here.
- [speaker] The key feature of my design is that every visitor
will clearly visualize and absorb the enormity of the sacrifice.
Every victim will be represented
by his or her own individuallife-sized human statue.
- [speaker] We could then have two or three foot crystal birds.
One for each life lost.
[applause]
- [Pataki] We wanted public involvement,so we invited submissions.
We got thousands.
- [Anchorman] More than 5000 people submitted proposals for a memorial
at the site of the World Trade Center.
Today, a committee chose this one.It's called, Reflecting Absence.
Designed by New Yorker, Michael Arad,it will include the names
of everyone killed in the 9/11 attackson the World Trade Center.
- [Michael Arad] I was working as an assistant architect
for the New York City HousingAuthority, Design Department,
when I found out there was a competition for the design of the memorial,
and I had to do this.
There's no sort of rational explanation for why you get so drawn into it.
I came across this quarry in South Orangeand there's just something very beautiful
and evocative about it, because it hadthis sort of clearly traced out absence
of all the rockthat had been excavated out,
but was softened by the water and by the trees and I think that
helped me to start thinking about the Memorial Plaza.
Days after the attack, I rememberbiking around Lower Manhattan
at night and I made my wayto Washington Square Park
and I found myself standing near that central fountain,
the grand fountain.People placed candles there.
And I felt like I was part of that group.
You know, I came there,not knowing anybody
and not a word was said.And I left a few minutes later
without having said anything to anybody
but, I left completely changed.
All of a sudden,that notion of sort of being
cruelly removed from the life o the city,
I mean, that just shattered. An we're part of it, a greater all
You had to be.
[cycling sound]
- [Rosaleen] Our neighborhood erein Yonkers is full of police officers
and fire fighters. So, after 9/11,I met other family member
and they were very, very intent on making sure that,
as they said, the brothers were listed with their ranks,
and I thought that was a no-brainer.
So, they asked me, would I dare to join the group, advocating for 9/11
issues, and they seemed like such a simple thing to become involved in.
- [Betts] I mean, simple things like,what's the order of the names?
Is it organized alphabeticallyby last name?
Is it organized alphabetically y last namewithin the firemen' group?
Are the firemen over here and the police over here?
I mean, these are things that were debated for years.
- [Lieber] The Mayor started seeingthe Memorial was not coming together
as quickly or as wellas everybody had hoped.
And he took ownership of it.He literally stepped up,
became the Chairman of the Board,raised the money and started
to push the construction schedules through.
- [Rosaleen] Mayor Bloomberg,it's his way or the highway.
That's what I have felt.
He's a man that cast us aside and made us seem like
we couldn't get over our grief.
CITY HALL
- [Michael Bloomberg] People's views change with time.
There's an emotion that, as soon as you lose a loved one,
that it's very different than an emotion that you have
five and ten and twenty years later.
And we have to make sure we don't respond to the first and in fact,
have a better perspective.That's not to say,
that you treat people cavalierly or don't listen to them.
- [Rosaleen] The Mayor and the LMDC,they were able to say,
"Oh, look at these families."
They're constantly complaining.And then, when other issues came up,
"Oh, look, here comes the families again.They're slowing the process down."
They actually blamed us for slowing Ground Zero down.
- [Betts] And so, they actually stopped bugging the Mayor.
But they went to Pataki and they found a very receptive ear in Pataki.
- [Pataki] We always try to include family members every step of the way,
as decisions were made and listen to them and when you have,
obviously, thousands and thousands of family members,
you're never going to have unanimity,you're going to have divergent opinions.
2004
- [Philip] Just when the effectsof the Governors' race were winding down,
the Republicans announced that in 2004, they'd be hosting
the Republican Convention. You know, in Midtown, but within
kind of easy commute from Ground Zero.
And it was clear that Pataki couldn't allowGround Zero to b a festering mess
of selfish infighting, as it ha become.We need to show some progress.
- [Pataki] On July 4th, as fireworks burst in the sky,
ephemeral reminders of our liberty,we will begin to reclaim
our skyline with a permanent symbol of our freedom.
On July 4th 2004, we will break ground on the Freedom Tower.
[applause]
- [Lieber] The Governor was in hasteto plant his footprint at Ground Zero.
And he had a beautiful cornerstonewith quite a moving inscription on it
to be planted at a spot wherethe Freedom Tower was going to rise.
- [Philip] First of all, towers don't have cornerstones,
but if you wanna lay a symbolic cornerstone, that's nice.
- [Betts] I remember it.I think it was a media event,
it wasn't a construction event.
♪ [music]
♪ [marching band playing]
- [Choir] ♪ For the land of the free,and the home of the brave ♪
[crowd applause]
- [Pataki] Today is the 4th of July,Independence day.
Today, we lay the cornerstone
for a new symbol of the cityan of this country,
and of our resolve to triumph in the face of terror.
Today, we build the Freedom Tower.
[applause]
- [Lieber] Of all these things,the choreography is charged.
Politicians want to be seen in photos,certain kinds of settings,
who's in the picture, who's not in the picture has political ramifications.
And I guess, the vision that the State-people had was, in the end,
the politicians would be in the big shot that would end up
on the front page of papers and they didn't really want Larry in the shot.
[choir singing]
A lot of the politicianswere uncomfortable with having somebody
who was a business personin the middle of this.
But Larry, when they walked overto the cornerstone and inspected it,
Larry went with the flow.
♪ [choir singing on background] ♪
[applause]
And after it's over, I'm walking out.
And one or two of the Pataki aides,button hole me
and begin to really let me have it,yelling at me, you know,
in full view of my wife, about howLarry had ruined the shot because
he didn't follow the choreographyand he went with the group
when he was supposed to,I guess,magically disappear.
But it just was a reminder at the timethat they had mixed feelings
about private developersbeing part of the story,
and about this private developer being part of the story of the rebuilding,
even though, we were the ones who were building the buildings.
[applause]
- [Pataki] We were readyto go with the Freedom Tower.
The tallest buildingever built in America,
and the symbol of our freedomand it was all set.
- [Lieber] But the one thing that nobody knew was that the Port Authority
and the Police Department had not communicated well,
about issues concerning security features in that building.
- [Raab] Because that base, that exposed base of the Freedom Tower design
at that point, was considered by theNYPD to be a severe terrorist risk
and where the building was placed,
which was quite closeto the highway was also
perceived by the NYPD to be lacingthe building at risk of car bombing.
So, the building was gonna haveto be moved, therefore making
the cornerstone layingabsolutely pointless.
When that communication tarted with the Port Authority as a matter
of first controversy and then burial.Apparently, there were claims
that yes, the NYPD sent a letter, but it got lost.
- [Silverstein] How can this be, in this modern era, this day and age,
with communication over this,how could this possibly happen?
The complete lack of corodination betweem the two.
- [Ringler] If the letter was such a big deal,
if I was on the other end of that letter and didn't get a response,
I probably would've gotten a hone call saying, "Did you get my letter?"
- [Lieber] And the whole project just stopped that.
- [Reporter] Mr. Mayor,with regard to the Freedom Towers,
why are security concernedjust now being presented?
- [Bloomberg] Well, they're not just now being, you couldn't be more wrong.
The security concerns have been there since 1993.
1993, there was a bombing at the World Trade Center
and we did not learn our lesson.
This is a building, particularly,Freedom Tower,
that is built to be a symbol.
And we are not going to rush in to doing anything that doesn't
take into account the security measures that the Police Department
and plenty of other people think are appropriate.
- [Lieber] It's impossible to describethe frustration that w all felt.
In fact, we had to go back and come up with a new building.
- [Silverstein] I was crushed by it,literally crushed.
I felt it was terribly unfair and a tragic waste of time,
effort, energy and money,that was needed for the purpose
of rebuilding the World Trade Center.
- [Childs] That changed the game, entirely.
Because we couldn't modify the building. We couldn't move it onto another site,
so we were in effect by that decision
given a clean slate of clean sheet of paper to work on.
- [Lieber] The building movedt the east away from the road.
And then, we came upwith a completely new design.
- [Anchorman] New York officials today unveil the latest redesign
of the Freedom Tower to be built in Ground Zero with the reinforced
concrete base for bomb protection.The tower will be 1776 feet tall,
its proportions and external skinrecalling the lost Twin Towers.
- [Ringler] I could remembershuttling back and forth
between Daniel and David, trying to get Daniel to say
that this is a beautiful building
and you know, and he kept looking in.Finally, he said,
"Yeah, I think I like it.I think I like it."
So, I said, I called up Governor's office and said,
"Dan is gonna say nice things. I think we're not gonna have an issue here."
- [Libeskind] The tower that we have now,after all the efforts,
is even a better tower than we have before.
It is a slender tower,it's an elegant tower,
it's a tower that rises in a crystal-like form--
- [Betts] Daniel Libeskind was partof that in name only.
He had absolutely nothing to do withwhat we now know as the Freedom Tower.
All that's left of Libeskind's influenceis the height of the building.
[cameras clicking]
- [Lieber] The new design was rolled outwithout people criticizing it
and we were back in business,and in fact, building
- [Anchorman] Well, today our Federal Jurydecided that for insurance purposes,
the destruction of the World Trade Center was two separate events, not one,
as insurance companies were hoping for.
And this means the lease holder, Larry Silverstein can collect twice
from some companies because separate planes hit the two towers.
This decision is the latest twist to Silverstein's effort to turn his
$3.5 billion insurance policy on the Trade Center Complex,
into a $7 billion payout.
- [Lieber] And in the end, we ended up recovering the equivalent of about
one and a half, $4.5 billion dollars of insurance.
And mind you, that $4.5 billion sounds like a lot of money,
but it's not enough money to rebuild the office space that was destroyed.
- [Ringer] It was decided to approach him and say,
"Can we re-negotiate the deal and perhaps, lessen your rental obligations,
and return some of the sites to the Port Authority
who would then go on and develop them."
2006
- [Anchorwoman] A deal must be reachedtoday between World Trad Center
lease holder Larry Silversteinand the Port Authority
which owns the land
on what to do with the sitebeyond the Memorial.
Governor Pataki setthe March 14th deadline last year,
in an effort to getthe rebuilding ball rolling.
- [Lieber] We gave them proposal after proposal, we couldn't get any response.
And they left everything to, literally, the last two days.
- [Ringler] We got to the day of the deadline
and our teams were working all day at our offices.
And I was there. I was going from roomto room and we were progressing.
We broke for dinner and hoped everybody would be back
by 7:00 or so, and we were gonna continue the discussions
and hopefully consummate a deal.
And I ordered pizza out for our folks
and we sat around the conference table eating pizza.
As I read later, Larry and his team were so ecstatic,
they ordered from a French restaurant and had a party.
And they didn't come back.
We kept calling, asking, "Where are you?"
"We're meeting with our key people. We'll be there. We'll be there."
- [Lieber] And we came back and it wasabout 9:00 or so, 9:00 - 9:30.
Larry Silverstein sat down, drank two cups of coffee
'cause he thought we were gonna be there for a long time.
- [Ringler] And I think he and his team, again, it's only my perception,
felt that because there was a deadline and that we wanted to honor
the Governor's wishes, that perhaps there was more nickels on the table for him.
I walked down the hall and Larryand his team were sitting at the table.
Everybody's sitting around there, smiling.
And I think I felt like an ancient Roman going into the Colosseum with the lions.
- [Lieber] Ken Ringler came into that conference room, where we were sitting.
And in very blue language, told us to get the "F" outta his office,
to pay our "effing" rent, and you know, we were a bunch of bums
and they were coming after us.
- [Silverstein] All I remember was being surprised as hell.
Because we genuinely were there
for the purpose of making a deal with the Port that night, clearly.
And it made no sense to me, literally made no sense.
And then of course, the next day, diffused a lot.
- [Ringler] We thought we were moving in the right direction.
Then at 11:35 was it, Sir?- [speaker] 11:35.
11:35, they came back with a proposal, where their demands
were just as high as they were before,
they're increasing their demands, and quite honestly, in my view,
I think they thought they had leverage that we were going to back down
because we wanted to get a deal
and we wanted to move the Freedom Tower forward.
We're not going to make short-sight a deal with Larry Silverstein.
- [Silverstein] Negotiation with the Port collapsed.
Next thing I know, New York Times,
"Governor to Larry Silverstein: Stand Aside.
You're obstructing progress at the site."
Oh, my God.
- [Ringler] Larry was losing the public battle.
And within days, there was a New York Timeseditorial,
the political leaders galvanizedaround it and said,
"No. Enough is enough."
We decided to put an agreement together and bring it back to Larry
and basically, not say take it or leave it, but as I told Larry
when I brought it up to him,
"It's this close to take it or leave it as we're gonna get."
- [Chuck Scarborough] Good evening.
An agreement between World Trade enter developer Larry Silverstein
and the Port Authority, means construction on the Freedom Tower
could finally begin. Perhaps, by week's end.
- [Sue Simmons] The deal will give Port Authority control
of the long-delayed Freedom Tower, but reward Silverstein with three
other prime developing sites along the eastern side of Ground Zero.
- [Silverstein] That was when we relinquished control of
The Freedom Tower and Tower 5and kept Towers 2, 3 and 4.
Did we think it was fair? Not necessarily.
But the important thing wasto keep the momentum going.
- [Lieber] What we got out of the deal was a commitment by the Port Authority
that they would dig the holeon the east side of the site.
The 80-foot hole and putin the infrastructure and fully prepare
those sites for construction.
- [Jon Stewart] If you remember, New York City was attacked
four and a half years ago and since that time,
we have been locked in a vicious battle over construction of the
tallest, shiniest, terrorist,tauntiest skyscraper in the world.
[audience laughing]
The 1776 foot tall Freedom Tower!
- [Pataki] Today, we lay the cornerstone
for a new symbol of the cityan of this country,
and of our resolveto triumph i the face of terror.
- [Stewart] So that was the sitetwo years ago.
And today...Oh!
[audience laughing]
[cameras clicking]
- [speaker] Governor, good morning. - [Pataki] Good morning.
Good morning. This is a great day for New York
and a great day for America.Today, we begin construction
on the Freedom Tower, the final element--
- [Betts] When the press would start ranting and raving about no progress,
there'd be a ceremony. I never went to any of them.
[excavator engine running]
[applause]
- [Raab] The cornerstone had to come out
because the Freedom Towerhad t be redesigned.
The cornerstone had been sitting in a plywood box.
They're taking this thing out,not literally under the cover of night,
but goddamn close to the cover of night.
No one is supposed to know that they're pulling the--
it's too much of an embarrassment to let anyone in the media know
that this is going to happen.
- [Reporter] What becameof the cornerstone itself?
- [Pataki] I honestly don't know, but to me, I thought it would be nice
to have it in the lobby of the actual Freedom Tower that's constructed.
I haven't had a chance to talk to David Childs about it.
- [Raab] My joke was always driving to Pataki's house.
You know, and put it down his front lawn.
Ring the doorbell and drive away as fast as you can.
[laughs]
[crowd applauding and cheering]
- [speaker] One , two, done. [crowd cheering]
- [Raab] One of the ironies isduring the middle of all the drama
back in the spring of '06,we opened 7 World Trade Center.
- [Betts] That's the best thing Larry did,was he went in.
He just plowed ahead, rebuilt World Trade Center number 7.
I think that was important for he public to see construction and to see action
down there and to see something coming out of the ground.
- [Lieber] It saw a finished product.It saw something that was high-style
that was green and that gave confidencethat downtown could
and would be rebornas a business district.
- [Silverstein] And they looked atwhat was going on across the street.
Havoc. I mean, just disasteracross the street, right?
They knowing it was the Port.Here, we finished a building.
And all of a sudden, people startled and said,
"What's he doing that's so bad? What's he doing so wrong?
Maybe he's the problem. "People started looking and saying,
"Maybe it's he's not the problem."
[water flowing]
- [Arad] The design initially suggestedthese Memorial galleries,
which would surround the poolssome 30 feet below the plaza.
And so the idea was that you would walk up to the--
adrift of these voids, sort of peer down below
and then go on this very, you know, emotionally fraught
processional experience and sort of walking into the area almost
walking right up to the names,which would be displayed
behind the waterfalls in thisvery sort of quiet, cloister-like space.
- [Rosaleen] In advocatingfor the ranks of the firefighters,
we were invited to Michael Arad's office to speak of that
and we were in the meeting room, in the conference room,
and you know, all around were aspects of the Memorial.
But there was a three dimensional modelof the Memorial.
And up to that point, none of u had reallyquestioned where the names were going.
But then we saw the three dimensional model and we realized
the names were gonna be underneath the waterfalls
at the base of the waterfalls, underground.
You would have to descend down, almostas though, you were goin' into the subway.
Descend down underground,into confined space to view the names.
And that shocked us.
Knowing now about 1993, about 2001, I will never go down.
I will never bring my children underground at Ground Zero
because I feel it's always gonna be the number one target site of the terrorists.
They've come twice.
What better place than to get usall while we're underground.
I mean, it just-- it never made sense to me.
- [Arad] It'll be so easy for this designto be changed in a fundamental way.
And you know, while every suggestion that was made,
was made by somebody who cares deeply about the Memorial,
was not necessarily consistent with the design that was selected
and then I felt it was my obligation to champion and be responsible for it.
How do you build a moment of silence?This is what this is.
- [speaker] Write down the ideas, because you know, four hours from now--
This is America's Memorial, as they all like to say.
America doesn't know what she's getting.
New York is on now, an American self now.
- [Man] That's insane.- [Rosaleen] Thank you very much.
Do you know they're spending$1.2 billion on this?
- [speaker] On a Memorial that nobody wants.
- [Rosaleen] We bring out the sleeping bags
and we bring out warmer clothes to spend the night here.
9/11 families have always been somewhat out in the public but
this was taking a step where people could really be critical of you saying
that you had flipped your lid, you know.
And you know, you could feel that.
You could feel that, "Maybe, I'm so deep into this.
Maybe, I'm carrying it too far."
But the first nights down there, I knew that it was the right thing to do.
We looked out into the vast opennessand we could just say
this was their spot
and we're defending it.
- [Reporter] They're being toutedas the last pieces
in the rebirth of Lower Manhattan.
The three towers: 2, 3 and 4 will replaceabout 6 million square feet
of the 10 million destroyed in the attack.
Norman Foster's tower is the largestof the three buildings.
It's taller than the Empire State Building
and has diamond-like panelingalong the top.
Richard Roger's toweris far sleeker in design.
Fumihiko Maki's is the first to be built,
will have a restaurantwith panoramic views.
- [Silverstein] Good morning. -[speaker] Mr. Damian, you know.
- Hello, Damian. - [Damian] Hi.
- HI, buddy. How are you?Okay.
- [speaker] We're in deep discussion with the Board
and the transit authority's about that.
- [Silverstein] We have less congestion by pulling this in
and having these out here.
All during this time, we're plowing ahead, plowing ahead.
Because we have--Governor said we design, finish plans,
specification and so forth for Towers 2, 3 and 4.
We did them, 18 months we finished the plans, specifications, done.
All right. Ready to go. Ready to shovel the ground.
Is this width the same as this width?
And guess what? No ground on which to put a shovel.
Why? Because the sites aren't ready.
The sites the Port Authority's suppose to deliver to us.
Not ready.
We know what it takes to dig a hole.
But for some reason, your people,they're taking longer.
Much longer than it has ever been taken, right?
What's taking so long?
- [Lieber] What happened was they hadanother groundbreaking
And they started construction of this PATH Train Station,
designed by Santiago Calatrava.
- [Pataki] And I rememberthe Port Authority had,
going to Santiago and saying,
"Is it expensive?" and he said,"Of course, it is."
- [Raab] Okay, build me the world'smost expensive subway stop.
Two billion dollar? No, make it 4 billion.The wings are going to open
like a dove twice a year or maybe not.
- [Lieber] And what increasingly became clearis that this train station,
which they called, "The Oculus,"because of its shape,
was actually an octopus that was killing all the other projects around it
because they were stickingall their mechanical system,
their air condition, their heating,to support this train station,
were being pushed into other buildings.
It was creating all kindsof complexities and delays.
2008
- [David Paterson] In my perusal,just in the first days of my administration,
I couldn't really find anyone that knew what was being built,
who was building it, when it would be completed
and how and what fashion it would actually be erected.
- [worker] Wonderful time.- [Chris Ward] Sir. Good.
- [Lieber] And one of the first thingsthat Paterson did when h came in,
was to replace the headof the Port Authority
with a new guy named, Chris Ward.
- [Ward] It's great they're all tied off.
We wanted it to be symbolic.
We wanted it to be monumental.
That could've and should've remained at a certain level,
but it became to dominate the whole project literally
right down into the ground and when it dominated it down into the ground,
the project lost its logic, it lost its constructability.
- [Raab] Chris Ward's a guy who's smart enough to come into the office
and recognize that everyone had been lying.
Everyone had been bullshitting for years.
Everyone had held press conferences, and made promises,
and none of those press conferences meant a goddamn thing
and none of those promises could be kept.
- [Paterson] After looking at the construction solutions,
that Chris Ward and the staff of the Port Authority
have been able to establish, I am comfortable today
by telling you that on September 11th, 2011,
ten years to the date of that disaster, there will be an open memorial
at Ground Zero to those who lost their lives that day.
- [Ward] We made a major commitmentthat the plaza would be open
on the ten-year anniversary.
The fountains would be functioning,the water would fall
and that was the commitment we made.
But it was a lot more complicated and there was some real fundamental
disconnects in what had to get built and how it would get built
and who would build it, that had to really get completely sorted out.
- [Silverstein] Things were sliding further and further and further behind
as we progressed, right? As the days went by, the days, the months.
- [Ward] The Mayor, advocate for he city,saw that things were i fact, stalled,
took it upon himself to bring us together in a Gracie Mansion Summit.
He brought the Governors togetherfrom both States.
He brought Larry and he brought me there.
- [Bloomberg] When they're not making progress, just shake things up.
You put them in a room with a big pot of coffee
and lock the doors with no bathroom. You'd be surprised how quickly
they come to an agreement.
- [Ward] It was one of those momentsthat I'm sure the Mayor
was very, very disappointed,if you go to Gracie Mansion,
the whole idea is you have successwhen you leave.
But you couldn't on that day, solve all the problems
as the Mayor had hoped we would.
- [Lieber] At some point, you know, the anger gives way to just depression
because you think, "How are we gonna ever get out of this?"
[crowd cheering and applauding]
- [speaker] Let me hear you one more time.
Wouldn't we want these jobs? [crowd shouting] No!
- [speaker] The finger pointinghas got to stop.
That's almost nine years after 9/11, instead of a shiny symbol of
American resilience and strength, we have a hole in the ground.
[cheering and applause]
- [Lieber] The construction workersin New York were so out of work.
At this point, this six monthsafter Lehman Brothers went down
and we're in the middleof this incredible economic collapse.
- [Ward] And you could take a pessimistic view and go,
"You know, maybe this worldwide recessionis gonna be deep.
It's gonna be long and that we're notgonna come out of it quickly."
We had a study that said, "Maybe the market's not back
all the way until 2037.
- [Lieber] People were not down for waiting another 25 years
to get the World Trade Center rebuilt.
[crowd chanting] Build it now! Build it now!
Build it now! Build it now!
- [Ward] It was kind of a great moment because everybody's chanting,
"Build it now!" And I was like,"Who are they talking to?
They were talking to me because I was the one guy who was there
that would answer the question, "Could you build it now?"
They were convinced that we werethe ones who were slowing i down.
- [speaker] We need the Hirsch, Chris, Larry, the city, to get back at the table
to find a solution so that these two towers can be built
and they can be built now.
- [Lieber] No more excuses. It's time for us to all put our shoulders
so that we all work together to get the job done.
And I think that was a game changer.
- [Paterson] And today, we have found an agreement
that we feel will allow us to complete the reconstruction
of the World Trade Center's site.
- [Ward] Wow. This is progress.
This is probably the most important part of the project from the
Port Authority's commitment to deliver the plaza for the anniversary.
We have to have this done or the plaza will not be completed.
But you stand here and think,
"Are they gonna be able to get it all done?"
We're doing really well. I have no expectation that we won't deliver
but, imagine it if we don't?
- [Jim] What's up, V.? - [V.] How's it going, Jim?
How are you, buddy?
- [worker] I got it right here.
The one coming through from this way here is sided.
- [Jim] Okay, all right.
[crackling metal sound]
I gotta get all the way out to the street five feet by today, alright?
Bob, we need those two beehive strainers.
When you look at it like this,
it's just amazing how many people killed that day.
Well, I lost my mother on 9/11. She was on the 94th floor
of the North Tower. I don't know what to say.
That's just hard to imagine it's ten years already. It really is.
It's what we have right here.
- [Arad] Reading the names up to the plaza,
when that decision was made against my wishes,
it felt like a tremendous blow.
And you know-- but if it is a child, if it is your child and it's injured,
you don't walk away from it, you stay involved. You keep caring.
My hope is when the memorial opens up,whatever dissatisfaction's had been
expressed up until now, some of this here's might be assuaged.
We'll see, I mean that's the missing ingredient for the memorial right now,
it's that interaction between the public and the memorial.
And what you have right now is the stage that's set for that encounter.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011
[crickets chirping]
Bye, sweetie. I'm leaving now.
[door opens then closes]
You know, last night at 11:00 or so,all of a sudden I sort of had this urge
to jump in the car and drive to see the siteto make sure that everything's there.
You know, sort of last minute--
You wanna make sure everything is just right.
[Sean giggling]
- [Sean] Ahh...
- [Rosaleen] Sean?
[scraping sound]
You put on Uncle Sean's shirt? You can put on Uncle Sean's shirt.
- [Arad] Today's gonna be really difficult.
But it's the moment I've been waiting for.
- [Judey] I want that one, please.
- [Rosaleen] Please havea couple of bites, Sean.
I'll give Panny then, a little bit of your English muffin.
- [Sean] They had a truck in those bunks in the truck
and they move it into the garage.
- [Rosaleen] You know, Daddy went over there to see
if he could find Uncle Sean. I don't know if you ever knew that.
- [Judey] He did?
- [Rob Tallon] Yeah.- I never knew that.
- [Rosaleen] It would be nice to see Uncle Sean's name, right?
- [Judey] Yeah.
- [Silverstein] Thank you.
[car door closes]
- [Rosaleen] Guys,ain't it a beautiful day?
- [Eileen] Oh, yes.- They had predicted rain for
yesterday and today.
- [Silverstein] Go on,just go pass them slowly.
Go further.
You're gonna go straight to Denmark.
- [woman] Good morning.- [driver] Good morning, ma'am.
- How are you?- [Silverstein] Silverstein!
- Straight ahead, Sir.- Thank you.
- Okay. - [driver] Thank you.
- Have a great day.- Likewise, ma'am.
- [Eileen] He was just beaming that morning. He was all lit up
in the house, had such a smile.He was wearing his lovely shirt
and then he's got on him a white collarand he just looks so good and smiling.
- [Rosaleen] Yes, they are very charming.
Where's Grandma? Keep Grandma with us.
- [Judey] Can you release my hand.
[footsteps]
- [Bloomberg] Please join in observing our first moment of silence.
[bell dings]
- [speaker 1] Edelmiro Abad- [speaker 2] Vincent Paul Abate
- Laurence Christopher Abel- Albert Balewa Blackman, Jr.
- Christopher Joseph Blackwell Carrie Rosetta Blagburn
- Susan Leigh Blair
♪ [melancholy music]
- [Arad] It's easy to think about all the strife, all the disagreement,
to sort of focus on, "Well, you know,this didn't go right, the didn't go right."
Actually, the big picture is somethingwent right, really right.
- [Silverstein] At the end of the day, it's a good thing to see,
everything out moving down the track
and getting built because this is important to New York.
You have to develop very thick skin,
really take a long view, a very long view.
And praises? White noise.
- [Rosaleen] That's Sean's name
I mean, he's one of these people listed on this memorial.
That's the shocker, I think. You know, you say,
"God, that was my flesh and blood that got caught up in all of this."
- [Lieber] I don't know if the citywill ever be whole.
The people who are lost,the families who experienced that.
You can never put that back or replace,but there's a part of the city's self respect
that I think is gonna be restored.
- [Childs] This is not Rome,in which you wanna hold it as it now is,
as a great historic monument,
but something which evolves and changes.
That's the nature of New York.
- [Philip] It's an incredibly healthy thingthat the city responded
to September 11th in sort of,classic New York fashion
by beating each other up andgrand standing in political manipulation
and you can say, "Oh, that's awful."
Or you can say, "What a wonderful thingthat New York
healed this big wound with more New York."
Citing marketing concerns, the Port Authority renamed
the "Freedom Tower" 1 World Trade Center.
Soon after, the agency signed a lease for 1 million square feet
of office space with magazine publisher Condé Nast.
The building will be the tallest in the city and is expected
to open in 2014, ten years after the cornerstone ceremony.
Chris Ward was pushed out of his job at the Port Authority
and replaced by a top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
7 World Trade Center reached full occupancy in October 2011.
Larry Silverstein hopes to complete the World Trade Center project
by 2016, when he'll be 85 years old.
4 WTC will be the first tower to open on the site in 2013.
The completion dates for 2 and 3 WTC depend on the success of
Silverstein's leasing efforts.
Since winning the master-plan competition in 2003, Daniel Libeskind
has designed more than 40 projects around the world,
including several skyscrapers.
The cornerstone now rests behind the headquarters of the
company that engraved it,in Hauppauge, Long Island.