International Sculpture Garden Proposal: Rebirth of the World Trade Center Site [2002]
Step off the downtown #1 and into an open-air art gallery, the start of a journey that makes you pause and wonder, pay your respects, and remember.
Creating a plan and selecting appropriate and exceptional designs for the World Trade Center site are difficult tasks to be sure. Amid the fractious struggle over competing visions and values, however, is a formidable opportunity to assemble a powerful, unifying and world-class presence in lower Manhattan in the form of an international sculpture garden. Here is how and why it would work.
Sponsors of the redevelopment would designate 91 small parcels throughout the site, one for each of the countries whose nationals were lost in the attack. The reserved spaces should vary in size but need not require footprints, on average, of more than a few square yards (a paltry amount given the site’s vast acreage). Most importantly, they should be interspersed throughout different spatial environments. This would include parks, plazas, promenades, as well as various indoor locations such as building lobbies and subway stations. Such a varied yet cohesive setting will produce a unique and magnificent backdrop for the collection.
Each of the participating nations, in turn, would sponsor a national competition to select its contribution. Without doubt, response to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity would be overwhelming. Such a process would guarantee an exceptional collection of diverse and compelling works of art – created and assembled at minimal cost and effort.
Establishing a sculpture garden in this fashion offers substantial and multifaceted benefits. One effect is to reconfirm and memorialize the international character of the tragedy. Unfortunately, the sympathy and goodwill that flowed to our shores immediately following September 11th have largely dissipated – and a sculpture garden certainly won’t counteract this trend. It could, however, serve symbolically to acknowledge the sacrifice and role of the international community by making its contributions an integral part of a redeveloped World Trade Center site. At the same time, like the United Nations, the sculpture garden would truly embody and promote New York’s status as the world’s capital.
Perhaps most importantly, the world’s preeminent urban sculpture garden will draw millions of visitors, providing an additional economic boon to the city. Guests from overseas will naturally be drawn to take in their country’s contribution. Maps detailing the name, location and origin of each work would provide an unparalleled walking tour experience – much like that offered by the renowned sculpture garden at PepsiCo’s global headquarters in Purchase, N.Y. - only with an urban twist. Rather than a remote private space visited via automobile, the urban garden would offer the most accessible collection of its kind. Points of entry, such as subways and sidewalks, will themselves play a central role in the experience.
And unlike the rest of the redevelopment project, the international sculpture garden poses few logistical problems. It can be incorporated within whatever spaces and structures are ultimately chosen and can be phased in according to the timetable of the site’s general development. In fact, interweaving the artwork throughout the site would impose an organic unity to the overall space.
The sculpture garden could serve as the memorial for the site or, more likely, as a fitting complement to a larger, central memorial. Either way, it represents a unique opportunity to create and assemble one of the world’s great artistic collections, a fitting tribute to New York’s international community and the victims of 9-11, and a preeminent New York attraction – all without raising the cost of a token.
