i watched an incredible documentary about the reconstruction of the World Trade Center. it’s hard to describe, but basically, a developer leased the WTC for 99 years in July 2001 (for billions of dollars), was left with the responsibility of rebuilding the towers (he collected the insurance money), and chose to use david childs, an architecht who he had worked with before, instead of daniel libeskind, who won the design contest that was highly publicized last year.

george pataki ordered the two architechts to collaborate, but the motivation of childs (to maximize square-footage, and thus profit), was irreconcilable with the aesthetic motivations of libeskind (who thought function was secondary to what the new building would do for the NYC skyline.. it was his artistic vision that won the contest to begin with).

after months of feuding and viscious legal disagreements, the governor forced the two groups to compromise at the last minute, and the result is a pretty ugly mutt of a building. it was really sad.