I've always felt it was handing a tremendous victory to the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center to replace it with a huge monument and a gaudy single tower. Calling it a Freedom Tower doesn't make it any less of a concession of the Manhattan skyline's grandiosity.
Ever since that awful day in 2001, the notion of rebuilding the Twin Towers has been a pipe dream since it was assumed no one would want to rent space there. But there are those of us who have held onto the dream of seeing taller, stronger towers rise again over Lower Manhattan. (Personally, I would prefer to see five towers, with the one in the center towering above all the others. Picture it and imagine the subliminal message to the terrorists.)
Now along comes Donald Trump for the first time in my life coming across as a hero in my eyes. He's come out with a design for new twin towers that may actually have a chance of being built now that the public is fed-up with the Liebeskind-designed Freedom Tower and the endless delays. I'd love to see Trump tell Liebeskind "you're fired" and move ahead with his plan.
The new towers would take into account all the design flaws that led to the destruction of their predecessors. Reinforced concrete on the exterior would make it nearly impossible for a plane to penetrate into the building. And fire suppression and evacuation systems would certainly benefit from the lessons of 9-11. The likelihood of another hijacked-plane attack is greatly diminished, anyway, by the fighter jet interception plans now in place, as we recently saw in Washington when a stray Cessna wandered into the restricted zone.
There is no better way to regain our dignity from 9-11 than to replace those towers, and we should get started on it as soon as possible.
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