My immediate impulse...

...on the morning of September 11, 2001 was "Fuck 'em. Rebuild exactly as they were."  A few moments later I realized that there was no reason to "cut our nose to spite our face." The World Trade Center was a bad urban design and it would be a bitter irony for us to rebuild a bad plan simply in order to signal defiance to evil-doers.  Nevertheless I was not surprised, considering my initial inclination, that I have been underwhelmed by the Libeskind/Childs proposal(s) which struck me (as much as I have been enticed into learning) as simultaneously showy and irrelevant.

So I am intrigued that there is general traction to the idea of recreating the WTC. See this proposal: Twin Towers II Design. I don't know enough of the site to offer (yet) much of an opinion. I would certainly find something appealing about a symbolic rebuilding. However, this proposal appears to be more than symbolic. It replicates the very large (over 40,000 SF) floor-plate of the original towers which is larger than typical nowadays for new office high-rises.  I wonder whether such a large floor makes economic sense. Of course I don't know the Wall Street market so it may well be reasonable.

My hot button of course would be to reintroduce the grid to the site. You can't have cities in which there are very many superblocks; Rockefeller Center works because it is an exception. This proposal seems to start to use the street grid as an organizing scheme, though without vehicles on the street. Would there be enough people in the area to fill up the implied right-of-ways? And make it feel "city?" I don't know.

What say, people who have studied the site and its potential?

Comments

[Brian Miller]

The Twin Towers were not New York, and they certainly were not "America" (a mindless government bonndoggle that warped the Manhattan real estate market for years)I'm sorry, I agree more with your more reasoned, later response (why replicate a bad urban design). The Twin Towers were soul-less monoliths.

[Chris Burd]

"This proposal seems to start to do use the great as an organizing scheme, though without vehicles on the street."

Is there a typo in this sentence?

[tangent Shenzhen]

If I recall correctly, Rockefeller Center follows the grid of Manhattan and even has a mid-block north-south street (Rockefeller Plaza). So its average block size is SMALLER than the surrounding blocks--and is not a supergrid.
http://www.rockefellercenter.com/home.html

I wish the WTC plans tried to follow the grid too.

[David Sucher]

Thank you, Chris.
Thank you, Tangent, though I have one site which also refers to Rockefeller Center as a superblock -- Daniel's Manhattan Architecture - Rockefeller Center. -- and I haven't been able to find a site plan.