The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the current state of the war on terror and the future of the site where the World Trade Center once stood were examined in a lecture Wednesday evening. As a part of the yearlong lecture series titled Memorials and Museums of Conflict and War, renowned architect and architectural critic Michael Sorkin spoke about the controversy surrounding the planned reconstruction over what he called “Ground Zero.”
Sorkin’s lecture, titled “Back to Zero”, examined the country’s differing views on the importance of preserving the former World Trade Center site. He drew a correlation between the undecided future of the 16-acre space and the current state of the nation. During the more than five years that have passed, little action has been taken to restore or consecrate the place in which the war on terror began, he said.
The stagnancy, he said, “parallels the progress of the war on terror itself.”
Sorkin called current plans to build a complex of sturdy, high-security office buildings and a central plaza an example of “art as usual” and a “model of the architecture of insecure times”.
The site should not be reconstructed as a commercial zone, Sorkin said, because the events of Sept. 11 were too tragic to be overlooked in such a way. Instead, he said, there should be a memorial installed to recognize all who fell victim to the plane crashes and all who aided in the rescuing of some of the victims.
He also said that conversion of the site into a place of free assembly “would have conveyed the right message,” especially since New York City currently has very few such places.
Architecture major Sarah Thomas found the issue difficult to comprehend having never visited New York City or Ground Zero.
“It’s hard to imagine what (New Yorkers) went through after 9/11,” she said. “But I agree that the space should be used as a public forum rather than built over for commercial purposes.”
Megan Dixon, a graduate student in urban and cultural geography, was disappointed that the lecture was not more focused on the famous architects’ ideas for Ground Zero. “I was anticipating a more detailed analysis of the different players (involved),” she said. “I found the talk more rhapsodic than informative, and I wished I knew more.”
Sorkin, a graduate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Urban Design Program at City College of New York. He has his own New York-based design practice, the Michael Sorkin Studio, is a widely acclaimed architectural critic, has taught overseas and at many Ivy League schools, has written more than a dozen books, and lectures regularly across the country.
Sorkin’s lecture was sponsored by the Savage Endowment for International Relations and Peace, the Oregon Humanities Center and the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.