Business as Usual

It’s been five years since the September 11 attacks, and still, Ground Zero sits empty. There have been competitions and controversy, public debates and new designs, and seemingly endless delays over the memorial and surrounding buildings to be constructed there. Many who’ve followed the saga are skeptical they’ll see the World Trade Center Memorial realized by it’s projected opening of 2009. Others remain deeply unhappy with the memorial design and the plans to surround the site with tall office buildings.

While public discourse is normal, Paul Goldberger says the plan for the World Trade Center site and memorial has veered off track, encumbered by power and politics. The author of “Up From Zero: Politics, Architecture and the Rebuilding of New York” ( Random House ) and the architecture critic for the New Yorker magazine, Goldberger spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett about the function of memorials and great memorials of the past. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What would you say are the most important things to keep in mind when thinking about a memorial of this size and scope?

Paul Goldberger: In my book I address the questions of how we move from the emotions that surrounded 9/11, the emotions of commonality, of common response to tragedy, to some kind of architectural response. There’s the dilemma of whether we can or cannot find a common language, but even beyond that, the question of how much can architecture do and how much can it not do.

What can architecture achieve in a successful memorial?

I think a successful memorial allows a wide range of people who have different experiences, different sensibilities and different temperaments to feel a common sense of awe and a common emotion as they look back at an event. It’s partly a teaching tool but partly also an emotional catalyst ... It’s a balance between commemoration and renewal, or between the awesome and the everyday. The things that acknowledge the enormous emotional power of this site but also the ordinary things that are part of daily life that you want to restore there. That’s a very difficult balance to achieve.