The competition to redesign New York City’s skyline has
given birth to something new out of the ashes.
UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design professor Greg
Lynn received word this month that the proposal on which he
collaborated for a memorial at the World Trade Center site was not
selected as one of two finalists to be considered for construction
over Ground Zero.
Lynn’s L.A.-based firm, Greg Lynn FORM, is one of six
small design groups that worked together under the name United
Architects to submit a single plan to the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation last fall. Despite not being chosen to make
its vision a reality, United Architects, which also includes groups
like New York’s Reiser Umemoto and London’s Foreign
Office Architects, will now continue to maintain offices in New
York City and seek out other sizable projects on which to
collaborate.
The LMDC, a joint State-City corporation charged with
facilitating the creation of a memorial honoring those lost in the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, selected seven design teams last
September among 406 proposals from around the world.
While most large-scale urban planning projects unite big design
teams, the competitive nature of the business usually means that
those collectives don’t stick together once it’s
over.
“Many of the representatives from the different firms in
the (United Architects) office were competing on other projects,
but the principles had a great dynamic,” said Florencia Ita,
a Ph.D. candidate in architecture at UCLA and member of the Greg
Lynn FORM team.
The fact that many of the firms that make up United Architects
often compete with each other was actually one of the main reasons
they chose to work together on the World Trade Center memorial.
The historical circumstances involved also help explain why
United Architects fostered a cooperative atmosphere that led to a
permanent partnership.
“A project like this defines generations,” said
Lynn. “Sept. 11, 2001, is a reference point for
everybody.”
Design concepts by Berlin’s Studio Daniel Libeskind and
international collective THINK were selected as finalists on Feb.
4. Their designs are currently on display in the World Financial
Center Winter Garden in New York, and will be modified over the
next few weeks in response to further analysis and public comment.
A final design will be chosen at the end of this month.
As hard as everyone involved has worked over the last few months
in this competition, for groups like United Architects that have
now been eliminated, it will hardly have been a wasted effort.
“I have no regrets at all,” said Jacki Hah, UCLA
School of Arts and Architecture alumnus and Greg Lynn FORM team
member. “It was a breakthrough for the whole field, because
this was so highly publicized … I think a lot of opportunities
will come up for United Architects.”
To see United Architects’ World Trade Center presentation,
visit www.unitedarch.com.