Anyone else feel like the 9/11 Memorial and WTC rebuild fell way short of what it could have been?
I know the whole Ground Zero situation was a legal and political nightmare to sort out, and One World Trade Center isn't a bad-looking building on its own. But it just feels incomplete. It lacks that iconic twin-tower "Steinway" effect that defined the NYC skyline for decades.
To me, the current memorial setup feels way too flat and sterile. Just two big black squares with water going down a drain. It completely lacks the raw emotion of what actually happened there.
Years ago, there were alternative proposals thrown around—including the "Twin Towers II" idea that people like Donald Trump backed at the time—and I honestly think that direction would have been infinitely better. Imagine a setup where they kept pieces of the actual steel ruins/facades in place as a permanent, haunting reminder, mixed with flags and the names of the victims, while building two brand-new, taller, and much stronger twin towers right next to or around them. Give them a modern glass design, keep the iconic footprint, put the antenna on one, and call it WTC II.
Building back the skyline bigger and bolder while keeping the actual ruins visible would have felt like a genuine, unapologetic "fuck you" to the terrorists. It would show that you can't erase what happened, but you also can't break the city.
Does anyone else feel like the current minimalist layout missed a massive opportunity for a much stronger statement?