Tag: 9-11 | ArchDaily

David M. Childs, Architect Who Rebuilt New York's Skyline, Passes Away at 83

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 06:23:00 +0000

David M. Childs, the architect renowned for his significant contributions to the New York City skyline, passed away on March 26, 2025, in Pelham, N.Y., at the age of 83. His career, primarily spent at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), was marked by a commitment to urbanistic values and a dedication to enhancing the civic good through architecture. Childs left an indelible mark on the built environment, balancing aesthetic considerations with the complex demands of large-scale urban projects.

Remembering 9/11: The Story of Rebuilding the World Trade Center

Maria-Cristina Florian — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 07:30:00 +0000

On the morning of September 11, 2001, two hijacked commercial jetliners struck the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, a third plane struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania. A total of 2.977 people were killed in the terrorist attacks. In the face of this unprecedented loss, the city of New York promised to rebuild Lower Manhattan as a lively neighborhood while honoring and maintaining the memory of this day. Thus began one of the largest reconstruction projects in New York City, a process that is still ongoing now, 23 years after the tragedy.

World Trade Center Site to create Memorial to those affected by 9/11-Related Illnesses

Niall Patrick Walsh — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:00:00 +0000

The World Trade Center site is to create a memorial honoring the thousands of people who have been affected by illnesses related to the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks in New York City. As reported by Curbed NY via The New York Post, the Memorial Glade site will honor rescue, recovery, and relief works as well as survivors and downtown residents who got sick or died from 9/11-related illnesses.

World Trade Center Transportation Hub Oculus Designed in Remembrance of 9/11

Eric Baldwin — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 12:00:00 +0000

The opening of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub's Oculus will take a rain check on the 17th anniversary of 9/11, according to Steve Coleman, a spokesperson for the Port Authority. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, the 335-foot-long skylight was designed to allow the “Way of Light” to pass through the main hub of the transit hall at 10:28 a.m.—the moment that the North Tower of the WTC collapsed on September 11, 2001. Symbolizing the light that continues to shine through after the darkness of the tragedy, the Oculus opening allows light to fill the massive space as a memorial to the attacks on the twin towers.

Construction Halts on Calatrava's St. Nicholas Shrine at the World Trade Center

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Construction on the Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center has halted, after the church failed to make a series of payments over a several month period to contractor Skanska.

93-Foot-Tall “Tower of Voices” to Commemorate 9/11 Victims with Wind Chime Soundscape

Patrick Lynch — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 12:15:00 +0000

Sixteen years after the tragic events of 9/11, the final major element of the Flight 93 National Memorial has been revealed.

Calatrava's St. Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center Tops Out

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 13:20:00 +0000

The Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center has topped out, and capped with a temporary, six-foot-tall cross.

Santiago Calatrava's Oculus Opens to the Sky in Remembrance of 9/11

Patrick Lynch — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 16:00:00 +0000

On the 15th anniversary of 9/11 yesterday, the skylights at Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus at the World Trade Center opened for the first time, allowing light to fill the massive space as a memorial to the attacks on the twin towers. Following the masterplan laid out by Daniel Libeskind, Calatrava’s design used the angle of light as a guiding principle for orienting the transportation hub – so that at precisely 10:28 am each September 11th (the time of the collapse of the North Tower), a beam of light would pass through the opening in the roof and project all the way down the center of the Oculus floor.

REX to Design World Trade Center Performing Arts Building in New York

Karissa Rosenfield — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 11:41:00 +0000

A commission that was originally set to be Frank Gehry's, Brooklyn-based REX has been selected to design The Performing Arts Center at New York's World Trade Center site - PACWTC. REX was chosen over finalists Henning Larsen Architects and UNStudio through a "rigorous invitational process" that focused on the practices' experience with similar projects, including REX's Dee and Chales Wyly Theater in Dallas, Seattle Public Library and Vakko Fashion Center in Istanbul.

Video: Santiago Calatrava On His Design For Ground Zero's Only Non-Secular Building

James Taylor-Foster — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In a film for the BBC Magazine, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava talks through his designs for the new St. Nicholas Church - the only non-secular building on the 9/11 Memorial site. The building, which broke ground last year, has been described by Calatrava as a "tiny jewel" for lower Manhattan, comprising of a white Vermont marble shrine sat beneath a translucent central cupola that is illuminated from within. The new church, of Greek Orthodox denomination, replaces a church of the same name which was destroyed during the attacks of 9/11. It is sited close to its original location on 130 Liberty Street, overlooking the National September 11 Memorial park and museum. With the building set to open in early 2016, Calatrava discusses the key conceptual ideas and references behind its unique, controversial design.

New York’s $4 Billion Train Station Takes Shape

Karissa Rosenfield — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Santiago Calatrava’s head-turning World Trade Center Transportation Hub has assumed its full form, nearly a decade after its design was revealed. In light of this, the New York Times has taken a critical look at just how the winged station’s budget soared. “Its colossal avian presence may yet guarantee the hub a place in the pantheon of civic design in New York. But it cannot escape another, more ignominious distinction as one of the most expensive and most delayed train stations ever built.” The complete report, here.

Kimmelman Reviews the One WTC: An Emblem of New York’s “Upside-Down Priorities”

Karissa Rosenfield — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Nearly a month since the official (and somewhat mundane) opening of New York’s One World Trade Center, New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has published a scathing review of the SOM-designed tower, claiming it to be a “flawed” emblem of the city’s “upside-down priorities.”

Video: A Conversation with the Architects of the 9/11 Memorial Museum

Sadia Quddus — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

"Typically, museums are icons that contain exhibits. This is the inverse: the exhibit is the icon."

Video: Snøhetta on Designing the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion

Sadia Quddus — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

"So in some ways I think that this tragedy gave a sense of purpose to people that was very positive, and we tried to translate that feeling into this building." In this video from the Louisiana Channel, Craig Dykers of Snøhetta describes how his own experience with the events of 9/11 and the positivity of the spirit of people around him helped inspire the design process of the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion.

Santiago Calatrava Breaks Ground on Church at 9/11 Memorial Site

Karissa Rosenfield — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Construction has begun on Santiago Calatrava’s Saint Nicholas National Shrine on the World Trade Center site in New York. A “tiny jewel” for lower Manhattan, as referred by Calatrava, the white Vermont marble shrine will be based around a translucent central Cupola that illuminates from within.

Critical Round-Up: The September 11 Memorial Museum

Rory Stott — Fri, 16 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Set to open to the public on Wednesday after a highly controversial and contested journey from idea to reality, the September 11 Memorial Museum has inevitably been a talking point among critics this week. The museum by Davis Brody Bond occupies the space between the Memorial Plaza at ground level and the bedrock below, with an angular glass pavilion by Snøhetta providing an entrance from above. A long ramp, designed to recall the access ramp with which tons of twisted metal was excavated from the site, descends to the exhibits which sit within the perimeter boundaries of the twin towers' foundations, underneath the suspended volumes of Michael Arad's memorial fountains.

9/11 Memorial Museum / Davis Brody Bond

Karissa Rosenfield — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

With completion in sight (May 2014), Davis Brody Bond has released detailed information on the design of the subterranean 9/11 Memorial Museum in Manhattan. Located beneath the sculptural voids that form the 9/11 Memorial, the new museum has transformed a fixed set of geometric constraints into an emotional journey that gently descends visitors 70 feet below the ground level to the original foundations of the World Trade Center towers.

Calatrava Reveals Design for Church on 9/11 Memorial Site

Eric Baldwin — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The site of 9/11 has seen significant change in the last decade, from the addition of David Childs’s redesign of the One World Trade Center to Santiago Calatrava’s PATH station. It looks like the site’s transformation is set to continue - Calatrava recently revealed images of the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, to be rebuilt across Liberty Street from Handel Architects’ September 11 Memorial. The images, showing a distinctly Orthodox Christian design, have already begun to attract criticism in the debate over placing religious institutions around the World Trade Center.