Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

I looked at the new proposals for the WTC site, and I was glad that unlike the first batch, these seem to have some vision. What's separating the two sets of plans is the way the first set was geared around making the new buildings blend into the surrounding skyline of Lower Manhattan, which is something many architectural experts never felt the original WTC did; there was a real way in which the original Twin Towers were not beloved until they were actually destroyed on September 11, 2001. The new plans, though, for the most part call for height and grandeur, which I for one am glad to see. I strongly feel that whatever gets built there, needs to soar.

My favorite is this one, by Studio Daniel Libeskind of Berlin:



I find this design beautiful, elegant and distinctive. Not so, however, the design by the United States' Meier Eisenman Gwathmey Holl. It seems to me that my first thought upon looking on the Lower Manhatten Skyline should not be, "X gets the square!"



This design is definitely grandiose, but I can't imagine it an improvement to build something that would clash with its surroundings even more than the original WTC purportedly did.