I took this picture last summer on the Staten Island Ferry, returning to Manhattan after a Tea Party. The title I gave it was Hole In The Heart, as it clearly shows the gap-tooth look of a post-9/11 New York. This picture is painful for what’s missing from, as opposed to what’s there.
However, the day before it was taken, I stood on the gangway above the construction site at Ground Zero, and watched as the workers on the site moved their machinery like paintbrushes to slowly paint us a new skyline.
Today the NYT has an editorial about the rebuilding effort, which is finally rising above the street level.
The most important sight at ground zero now is Michael Arad’s emerging memorial. The shells of two giant pools are 30 feet deep and are set almost exactly in the places where the towers once were.
The huge waterfalls around the sides, the inscribed names of victims and the plaza are promised by the 10th anniversary next year. But two 70-foot tridents that were once at the base of the twin towers were installed last week. The museum will be built around them by 2012. And the first 16 of 416 white swamp oaks were planted on the eight-acre surface.
Surrounding that memorial will be a ring of commercial towers — eventually to be filled with workers, commuters, shoppers, tourists, the full cacophony of New York City. The tallest skyscraper is now a third of the way up. The developer Larry Silverstein has one of his skyscrapers taking shape — this one by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. The bases of two more are finally beyond the planning stage.
