Ground Zero Plus 25
It has been 25 years since the terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, killing more than 2,700 people and rending the landscape of Lower Manhattan. The rebuilding effort that followed began with an outpouring of proposals from the world’s most prominent architects—some mournful or pragmatic, others wildly speculative—before running aground in political acrimony. Over time the process righted itself, at least to a degree, with a memorial and museum, office towers, a transit hub, and a performing-arts center filling the site.
Now that the rebuilding process is essentially complete, what lessons can New York City draw from this 25-year saga? What does the site as it stands today suggest about the trajectory of Lower Manhattan, governance in New York City and Albany, and architecture culture? A quarter of a century on, is Ground Zero a neighborhood, a mourning zone, or some uneasy combination of the two?
Featuring:
Andy Battle, writer, editor, and teacher
Justin Beal, artist and writer
Cosmo Bjorkenheim, LJ Frezza, and Anny Oberlink, filmmakers
Christopher Hawthorne, Punch List and Yale School of Architecture
Mark Krotov, n+1
Samuel Medina, New York Review of Architecture
Lynne Sagalyn, author and professor emerita at Columbia Business School
Rose Salane, conceptual artist and curator
Nikil Saval, Pennsylvania state senator and former editor of n+1
Carla Swickerath, partner at Studio Libeskind
Audrey Wollen, critic
Sharon Zukin, documentary filmmaker and professor emerita of sociology at Brooklyn College and at the CUNY Graduate Center
Drinks at a nearby bar with the participants to follow.
About the hosts:
Punch List is a weekly dispatch on architecture, design, and cities, edited by Christopher Hawthorne. Subscribe free here, or for a paid subscription, with bonus material, here.
New York Review of Architecture aims to reinvigorate design criticism through unconventional means, publishing ambitious writing that treats architecture not as a niche profession, but as a public matter entangled with politics, culture, and everyday life. Subscribe with 25% off to snag a subscriber ticket and get our issues delivered straight to your mailbox.
n+1 is a print and digital magazine of literature, culture, and politics published three times a year. We also post new online-only work each week and publish books expanding on the interests of the magazine. Subscribe to support our work!
How to register:
If you have an active paid subscription to Punch List, NYRA, or n+1, request a ”Subscriber” ticket for your respective publication. Once your subscription has been verified, your purchase will be approved and your payment method will be charged.
Having trouble registering for the event, or just have a question? Email office@nyra.nyc