Two years after terrorists reduced the 12-million-sq-ft World Trade Center to rubble, officials charged with the sites $10-billion redevelopment are cautiously celebrating the end of a major bottleneck to the recovery of Ground Zero and Lower Manhattan by putting the final touches on a detailed plan for the 16-acre complex. "Were starting to pick up steam," says John N. Lieber, director of WTC development for Silverstein Properties Inc., New York City, the parent company of the entity that, along with retailer Westfield America Inc., had signed a 99-year lease on the trade center less than two months before Sept. 11, 2001. "A lot of the complicated political and policy decisions are coming together," says Lieber, whose job was created last March by WTC redeveloper Larry Silverstein. "Its an exciting time to get involved."
There are still open questions regarding the WTC, but the recent "big hug" between Silverstein and the states Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp. over control of the architecture for the proposed 1,776-ft-tall contender for the title of "Worlds Tallest Building" paved the way for progress. The July announcement that local high-rise architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & MerrillSilversteins choicewould reign over the $1-billion Freedom Tower envisioned by LMDCs master planner Daniel Libeskind catapulted the redevelopment from a holding pattern into forward motion.