Editing World Trade Center site (section)

====2002 World Trade Center site design competition====
{{multiple image
 | direction = horizontal
 | width     = 200
 | header    = World Trade Center site layout
 | image1    = WTC Building Arrangement and Site Plan.svg
 | alt1      = WTC site plan prior to November 9, 2001
 | caption1  = Above: The World Trade Center site prior to the September 11 attacks.
 | image2    = WTC Building Arrangement in preliminary site plan.svg
 | alt2      = WTC site plan for reconstruction, WTC 1,4 and 7 are completed.
 | caption2  = Above: Preliminary site plans for the World Trade Center rebuild.
 | footer    = [{{filepath:WTC_Building_Arrangement_and_Site_Plan_comparison.svg}} Comparison (background: pre-9/11, blue overlay: planned rebuild)]
}}
In an August 2002 press release, the LMDC announced a design study for the World Trade Center site.<ref>{{cite press release |title=Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Announces Design Study for World Trade Center Site and Surrounding Areas |publisher=www.RenewNYC.org |date=August 14, 2002 |url=http://www.renewnyc.com/displaynews.aspx?newsid=da800006-c35b-4f1c-a9ec-ff53cfe45ae2 |access-date=August 7, 2008}}</ref> The following month, the LMDC, along with New York New Visions – a coalition of 21 architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture and design organizations – announced seven semifinalists. The following seven architecture firms were then invited to compete to be the master plan architect for the World Trade Center:
* [[Foster and Partners]] ([[Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank|Norman Foster]])
* [[Studio Daniel Libeskind]] ([[Daniel Libeskind]])
* Meier Eisenman Gwathmey Holl ([[Peter Eisenman]], [[Richard Meier]], [[Charles Gwathmey]] and [[Steven Holl]]), known as "[[The New York Five]]"
* [[Skidmore, Owings & Merrill]]
* [[THINK Team]] ([[Shigeru Ban]], [[Frederic Schwartz]], [[Ken Smith (architect)|Ken Smith]], [[Rafael Viñoly]])
* United Architects
Peterson Littenberg, a small New York architecture firm, had been enlisted by the LMDC earlier that summer as a consultant, and was invited to participate as the seventh semifinalist.<ref>{{cite press release |title=Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Announces Six Teams of Architects and Planners to Participate in Design Study of World Trade Center Site |publisher=www.RenewNYC.org |date=September 26, 2002 |url=http://www.renewnyc.com/displaynews.aspx?newsid=655798f4-b8ee-4583-bf27-b3b9a9c29f1f |access-date=June 16, 2008}}</ref>

The seven semifinalists presented their entries to the public on December 18, 2002, at the [[Winter Garden Atrium|Winter Garden]] of the [[Brookfield Place (New York City)|World Financial Center]]. In the following weeks, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill withdrew its entry from the competition.<ref>{{cite news |title=Beauty Contest: Two Firms Vie At W.T.C. Site |first=Tom |last=McGeveran |url=http://www.observer.com/node/47085 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913151648/http://www.observer.com/node/47085 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 13, 2010 |newspaper=[[The New York Observer]] |date=February 9, 2003 |access-date=July 31, 2010}}</ref>

Days before the announcement of the two finalists in February 2003, Larry Silverstein wrote to LMDC Chair [[John C. Whitehead|John Whitehead]] to express his disapproval of all of the semifinalists' designs. As the Twin Towers' insurance money recipient, Silverstein claimed that he had the sole right to decide what would be built. He announced that he had already picked Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as his master planner for the site.<ref name=breakingground>{{cite book |last=Libeskind |first=Daniel |title=Breaking Ground |publisher=[[Riverhead Books]] |location=New York |year=2004 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/breakinggroundad00libe/page/164 164, 166, 181, 183] |isbn=1-57322-292-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/breakinggroundad00libe/page/164}}</ref>

On February 1, 2003, the LMDC selected two finalists, the THINK Team and Studio Daniel Libeskind, and planned on picking a single winner by the end of the month. Rafael Viñoly of the THINK Team and Studio Daniel Libeskind presented their designs to the LMDC, which selected the THINK design. Earlier the same day, however, [[Roland Betts]], a member of the LMDC, had called a meeting and the corporation had agreed to vote for the THINK design before hearing the final presentations. Governor Pataki, who had originally commissioned the LMDC, intervened and overruled the LMDC's decision.<ref name=breakingground /> On February 27, 2003, Studio Daniel Libeskind officially won the competition to be the master planner for the World Trade Center redesign.

Libeskind's original proposal, which is titled [[Memory Foundations]], underwent extensive revisions during collaboration with Larry Silverstein, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whom Silverstein hired.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/wtc_site/new_design_plans/Sept_2003_refined_design.asp |title=Lower Manhattan Development Corporation |website=www.renewnyc.com|access-date=August 8, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416100733/http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/wtc_site/new_design_plans/Sept_2003_refined_design.asp|archive-date=April 16, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Though Libeskind designed the site, the individual buildings have been designed by different architects. While not all of Liebeskind's ideas were incorporated into the final design, his design and the public support it garnered did solidify the principle that the original footprints of the Twin Towers should be turned into a memorial and not be used for commercial purposes.  As a result, Liebeskind's lawyers at the New York firm of Wachtell Lipton embarked on the multi-year negotiation process to frame a master plan for the rebuilding.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wtc.com/news/Silversteins-Army |title=Silverstein's Army – World Trade Center |website=www.wtc.com}}</ref>  The first step in this process, completed in 2003, was the "swap" in which Silverstein gave up his rights to the footprints of the Twin Towers so that they could become a memorial, and in exchange received the right to build five new office towers around the memorial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanlawyer-digital.com/americanlawyer/tal200709/?pg=5 |title=Error |website=www.americanlawyer-digital.com |url-access=subscription |page=5 |access-date=October 6, 2011 |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406092831/http://www.americanlawyer-digital.com/americanlawyer/tal200709/?pg=5 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  The "swap" and the ensuing negotiations, which lasted for many years, have been referred to as the most complex real estate transaction in human history because of the complexity of the issues involved, the many stakeholders, and the difficulty of reaching consensus.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Scott |last=Raab |title=Construction of World Trade Center |magazine=Esquire |date=May 24, 2007}}</ref>