Cesar Pelli

The image of the World Trade Center Towers is now engraved in our collective memories. Their image was powerful well before the tragedy of the September 11th attack because the Twin Towers dominated the skyline of Manhattan. After the terrible events that led to their destruction and the loss of thousands of lives, it is very difficult to judge them objectively as pieces of urban architecture and I need to go back to what I thought about them in years past.

I have always questioned their size and their abstract nature. Unquestionably, my judgment was affected by my long love for the iconic image of downtown Manhattan as it was from the 1920s to the early 1950s. This was probably the strongest, best-known and most cherished image of a city anywhere in the world. I speak about its image and not of the reality of downtown Manhattan in this period because I was then living in my hometown of Tucumán in northern Argentina. But I, like almost everyone else in the world, knew this image well, through innumerable photographs and, perhaps more importantly, as a key background in many movies. This agglomeration of very tall and proud vertical spires seemed like the expression of many dreams. It was a wonderful image capable of communicating a variety of positive feelings. It was a symbol of hope in films showing immigrants arriving in America. It was also a potent symbol of freedom during the Second World War when refugees were seen coming to these shores or when soldiers were sailing to Europe.

Other buildings had started to take away some of the romantic magic of this grouping of skyscrapers before the World Trade Center Towers were built. The first culprit was the Chase Manhattan Bank Building designed by Gordon Bunshaft. This building started to change the character of downtown Manhattan, but at least did not change its scale. The World Trade Center Towers, designed by Minoru Yamaski, were so large that all the other skyscrapers in the area lost their sense of height and vertical thrust next to them. Somehow, the Twin Towers captured onto themselves the strength of the whole group of buildings. The change of scale was due not only to the size of the Twin Towers, but also to their abstract character, their lack of detail. The Towers were big and size-less at the same time. Sometimes we saw them as two oversized household objects sitting there on the southern tip of the island. When this happened, the older skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan became toys, small and unimportant. It is interesting to note that the Empire State Building, almost as tall as the Twin Towers, has maintained and maintains its scale. It does not become an abstract object; it is always a tall building.

Although I was not happy with the Twin Towers abstractness or their effect on downtown Manhattan, I found myself on several occasions being impressed with how beautifully they glistened in the morning haze or how their chamfered edges caught the light and glowed like knife blades against the sky. They also provided a suitable background for the Statue of Liberty. And because they imposed themselves as the great pinnacles of the downtown Manhattan Magic Mountain, they were often able to absorb the power of the whole composition onto themselves; and as such, they became for many the image of Wall Street, of the financial power of America. This is perhaps why they became the target of an attack on our country.

I believe that for all they represented while they were standing, and because of their tragic demise, that they deserve to be well remembered. But, we do not need to recreate them; smaller towers of not more than 60 or 70 stories would still crown the downtown Manhattan grouping. If they are designed with more respect for the scale and characteristics of the standing group of the best skyscrapers in the area, the southern end of Manhattan will regain its power and majesty, and perhaps gain in grace and character.