Word: freedoms
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...army of politically plugged-in bureaucrats--all with their own ideas about what should be built, how much it ought to cost and who should pay for it. Even Donald Trump makes a cameo. Trump, whom Silverstein once considered a friend, unveiled a competing proposal last summer, denouncing the Freedom Tower, the 1,776-ft. centerpiece, as "the worst pile-of-crap architecture I've seen in my life...
...people died in the attacks--some leaping from the burning upper floors of the towers. The new World Trade Center will cost more than $15 billion and anchor the country's fourth largest business district after midtown Manhattan, the Loop in Chicago and downtown Washington. Construction on the Freedom Tower finally began last month, in a symbolic groundbreaking, after Silverstein came to an agreement with state and city agencies that will divide responsibility for different parts of ground zero...
...visions of ground zero. Pataki muscled Silverstein out of the initial planning, organizing a worldwide architecture competition, eventually won by Daniel Libeskind, who designed a complex, including a museum, a memorial, a performing-arts center, a transportation hub and five office towers, with what is now known as the Freedom Tower as the tallest. Bloomberg tried a bureaucratic end run, offering to swap with the Port Authority control of the city's airports for ground zero, in hopes of then removing Silverstein as developer. That effort failed, but it didn't stop Bloomberg from repeatedly calling for Silverstein to cede...
...April truce between Silverstein and the Port Authority resolves most of those turf issues. Silverstein gets to unload the Freedom Tower, widely seen as a white elephant and a money loser. Pataki can claim that construction is moving forward, in time for his expected presidential bid. Bloomberg, who has long pushed for adding residential space, will probably get that with Tower 5. There are yet some issues on the table, but the agreement was enough to clear the way for construction on the Freedom Tower to begin April...
...biggest remaining question mark hanging over ground zero is the fate of its controversial centerpiece. The plan for the Freedom Tower has always been more emotional response than business proposition, born out of a desire to show the world that Americans would not be cowed by terrorists. "We have a public responsibility to rebuild ground zero, and it's incumbent on us to build a tower of freedom and democracy," says Charles Gargano, vice chairman for the Port Authority. "We need a signature building. It's not just a real estate project...