As I watch new buildings rise on Ground Zero, I wonder what happened to the dreamy skyscraper that architects first envisioned. The glass-walled One World Trade Center is lovely, but it's so different from the original Freedom Tower. Why so many changes?
Construction on 1 WTC, July 12, 2011. Photo by Flickr Member Jonathan Percy CC 2.0 Generic
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It’s different because the visionary skyscraper was designed by Daniel Libeskind, but the one being built is designed by David Childs, who helped the WTC developer Larry Silverstein push out Libeskind from any meaningful input. Silverstein wanted Childs from two days after 9/11 but had to work his way around the will of the people and the architectural jury and everyone else to get what he wanted.