The weekend edition of "breathtaking inanity" is supplied by The Gutter, normally an architectural blog so dense with inside baseball BS, I don't even bother. But in an item that reacts to the NY Post's absurd article asserting that all systems are go at the World Trace Center memorial, The Gutter is for once worth quoting at length:Fact: When completed, in 2000-whenever, the WTC memorial will immediately become a plum target for nemeses and ne'er-do-wells, far and wide. Fact: The interiority of the memorial—all those grievers sandwiched underground between concrete walls—will increase this danger. Fact: Massive, disruptive, airport-style security will be required at all entry points, coloring the experience of 9/11 remembrance with a reminder of its cause. Fact: Until this basic reality is acknowledged, excuse our French, it's a death trap.
Okay, even if it weren't going to be a death trap -- which is the most important point, since it will be -- it is hardly all-systems-go. How this has all unfolded has got to be one of the biggest disappointments imaginable. The only thing worse is if it DOES get built the way it's currently "planned" and people do get hurt. We would be much better off if it laid fallow for another decade until everyone really had a chance to integrate what happened there and how to address it.
