Sixteen acres
Subtitle: architecture and the outrageous struggle for the future of Ground Zero
By: Philip Nobel.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co.; Metropolitan Books
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
Subjects: Architecture -- New York (State) -- New York -- 21st century -- Designs and plans; City planning -- New York (State) -- New York; Architecture and society -- New York (State) -- New York; Architecture -- New York (État) -- New York -- 21e siècle -- Dessins et plans; Urbanisme -- New York (État) -- New York; Architecture et société -- New York (État) -- New York; World Trade Center Site (New York, N.Y.); New York (N.Y.) -- Buildings, structures, etc; Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) -- Buildings, structures, etc; World Trade Center Site (New York, N.Y.); New York (N.Y.) -- Constructions; Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) -- Constructions
Genres: Designs and plans.
Description: A look at the collision of interests behind the ambitious attempt to raise a new national icon at Ground Zero. Critic Philip Nobel strips away the hyperbole to reveal the secret life of the century's most charged building project. Providing a tally of deceptions and betrayals, a look at the meaning of events beyond the pieties of the moment, and a running bestiary of the main players--developers and bureaucrats, star architects and amateur fantasists, politicians and the well-spun press--Nobel's book bares the crucial moments as factions and institutions converge to create a noisy new culture at Ground Zero. Tragic and comic by turns, full of low dealings and high dudgeon, this book takes us behind the scenes at a site in search of its sanctity, exposing the reconstruction as the flawed product of a complicated city: driven by money, hamstrung by politics, burdened by the wounds it is somehow supposed to heal.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-269) and index.
Table of contents: title: First responders; title: Our buildings, ourselves; title: The cooperation of men; title: Amateur hour; title: Circus maximus; title: Listening mode; title: Star light, star bright; title: Prime time; title: When architects attack; title: Show and tell; title: The art of the possible; title: So moved.