Visitors to Berlin's Jewish Museum this month can peruse the model architect Daniel Libeskind made of the office tower complex that will soon rise out of the ruins of the World Trade Center.
Two years to the day that two hijacked plans destroyed the massive twin towers, the developmental future of "Ground Zero" looks anything but secure.
Since Libeskind's design was selected on March 1 to replace the two massive towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, control over the design and the site have endangered the project. A confusing jumble of Sept. 11 victims' organizations, insurers, city and state officials and the owner of the World Trade Center lease continue to debate Libeskind's design.
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Lease owner Larry Silverstein, who wants more office space than provided in Libeskind's plan, has appointed his preferred architect, David Childs, as the chief architect on the most dramatic part of the design, the 1, 776-foot tall "Freedom Tower." Libeskind's title was also changed, from chief to "collaborating" architect.
The moves appear to be a demotion for the Polish-born architect, who emerged from a field of world-class architects to snatch the project in the 11th hour in March. But Libeskind appeared nonplussed by the intrusion at a recent press conference to open an exhibit of his work at the Jewish Museum, considered one of his best creations.
"What will come out of it is not a hodge-podge of eclectic mixtures and compromises, but an evolution of a plan that was initially robust enough and strong enough and flexible enough to accommodate the evolving program, " said Libeskind, who moved his offices from Berlin to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in May.
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Silverstein also seems untroubled by the architectural stew, which saw the addition of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrav recently to build the site's new commuter railway station.
The 72-year-old developer went on to say that he thought the site would be fully developed within the next ten years. City officials certainly hope things get moving quickly. The 16-acre hole was home to the most active office space in southern Manhattan. Thousands of jobs have been lost and companies relocated since the attacks, and politicians are eager to get the new towers built and the offices filled.
It's official: Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind has won an international competition to fill the vacuum where the World Trade Center towers once stood. (Feb. 28, 2003)Great Britain's scheduled Brexit day, March 29, is only a few weeks away, butmany of Europe's artists and intellectuals are still struggling with the upcoming event.
Focus On Europe
"The fatal decision in favor of Brexit, with which the country — it seems to me — is massively damaging itself, fills me with incredulity, pain and anger, " says Axel Scheffler. Though he was born in Hamburg, the creator of the children's book character "Gruffalo" has been living in London for almost three decades.
First published by Macmillan in Great Britain in November, the German version has just come out this month. Scheffler's illustration adorns the cover of the book, showing a group of animals traversing along and carrying their own coloring pencils. They on the march to a Europe that is growing together.
Illustrator Patrick George's vision of Europe is composed of a colorful kids' party with all sorts of different people babbling along together excitedly.It's only the British girl who is off to the side, floating away in the sky with her red balloon. She doesn't understand why she has to leave the party. "Following this ridiculous referendum, we're now looking at an uncertain future, " the artist commented. George hails from Ramsgate, a seaside town in east Kent, England, where a large majority of the residents voted for Brexit.
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Another poignant illustration is by Emily Gravett, a well-known British illustrator and children's book author. It shows a British mouse sitting alone under a cheese dome nibbling on an old piece of cheese next to a large, lavishly laid-out cheese platter withthe European Union flag stuck with a toothpick in an apple.
The book of illustrations and drawings about the EU was a brainchild of Markus Weber, of the Moritz children's book publishing company, while at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2017. He suggested to Axel Scheffler that they get British illustrators on board. But the book is surely not just one for children. "Of course, it's a political book, " Weber said. "The artists are depicting more than just little rabbits and bears."
Like Scheffler, whose Gruffalo monster is familiar to German and British children alike, many of the illustrators are hopeful that Brexit will not actually come to pass. Scheffler was able to win over famous colleagues for the book project, including award-winning German children's and youth literature author and illustrator Jutta Bauer, as well as famous British writer and illustrator Judith Kerr, who hails from a German-Jewish emigrant family. She became famous in Great Britain with her illustrated stories about the tomcat Mog and the tiger who comes for tea.
Drawing Board Pictures
"My great personal hope, " Scheffler writes in his foreword, "is that it is not too late to change Britain's course out of the EU." And Judith Kerr, in the book, happily lets Tiger and Mog carry blue EU flags, accompanied by her own call: "Up Europe!"
When the Theaterlabor Bielefeld launched its "Cafe Europa, " there was no talk yet Great Britain leaving the EU. Now people involved in the cultural scene are wondering about what effect a Brexit would have on artists. (26.10.2018)
It's not over until the fat lady sings, but for many emerging bands in the British music industry, a no-deal Brexit could be a career-ending moment, Rob Mudge reports. (22.09.2018)
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