World Trade Center Building Push Nears Officials steel themselves for mammoth construction coordination challenges through 2009 9/13/2004
For the first time since terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, officials leading lower Manhattans $7-billion redevelopment are issuing a collective sigh of relief. Though they are still wrestling with the "devilish details" of shoehorning so much program into an 18-acre site, they expect to issue long-awaited design guidelines this fall. In any case, with the cornerstone laid for the 1,776-ft-tall Freedom Tower and the WTC memorial design under way, the most testy decisions are behind them.
"Whats remarkable has been the consensus on the plan," says Kevin M. Rampe, president of the states Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp., created to guide the redevelopment.