As plans and construction for the new World Trade Center progress, harsh criticisms are being made towards New York City’s efforts to replace the twin towers.
British street artist, Banksy wrote a blog last week criticizing the build that has been gaining some attention. “That building is a disaster,” he writes, “the attacks of September 11th were an attack on all of us and we will live out our lives in their shadow… but it’s also how we react to adversity that defines us. And the response? 104 floors of compromise.”
Banksy first submitted this opinion column to the New York Times, only to be denied, but ironically gaining perhaps more attention by publishing it on his own website.
The new One World Trade Center is planned to stand at 1,776 feet tall making it “the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere,”
Banksy calls this new skyscraper a “betrayal of everyone who lost their lives on September 11th because it so clearly proclaims the terrorists won. Those 10 men have condemned us to live in a world more mediocre than the one they attacked…”
Although I’m sure there are many with mixed emotions about this new tower being built, I am positive that there are many others who are on the very opposite of the spectrum—who believe that we should fight to rebuild the things that were stolen from us and that this new building is in fact a memorial of that ideal.
The 104-story One World Trade Center skyscraper is on schedule to be completed in May of next year.