a decision has been made for the world trade centre replacement — daniel libeskind's crystalline offices, which was my preference of those that were submitted to the site and especially the THINK proposal, which looked like skeletons of the former towers. having seen the photos of the jewish museum in berlin and the proposed ROM glacier in toronto, libeskind has a natural eye for shapes. i just hope that his memorial for the dead doesn't impede the resucitation of lower manhattan.

still, i wished for the one design from 100 years ago that would have looked like a shimmering mountain: gaudi's grand hotel for new york, drawn back in 1905 and to be built on a site eeriely close to the world trade centre. imagine looking at a giant rocket, making manhattan look like the rio de janeiro skyline.