"And by that destiny, to perform an act
Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come
In yours and my discharge."

                                       - The Tempset, Act II, Scene 1


We recently approached someone for support and received a reply which we believe faithfully conveys how most people see this issue:

I'm on board, at least with the general concept of rebuilding the towers. I wouldn't rebuild them *exactly* as they were before... there should be something slightly different so that someone looking at a picture could say "those are the resurrected twin towers." If they are rebuilt exactly the same, it's almost as if nothing ever happened. I felt very disturbed when I heard that TV shows like Sex and the City and movies like Zoolander were being edited to remove images of and references to the twin towers. Quoting Orwell has become cliche, but this section from 1984 is particularly apt:

"Past events, it is argued, have no objective existence, but survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it. It also follows that though the past is alterable, it never has been altered in any specific instance. For when it has been recreated in whatever shape is needed at the moment, then this new version is the past, and no different past can ever have existed."

So as long as it's about resurrecting the towers as opposed to erasing any record of their absence, I'm all for it.
If done right, it could stand as a powerful statement about America's ability to get back up after being knocked on its back.



Time Magazine – January 18, 1963


Orwell's dark vision is alive and well in Troy, Michigan. The current myopic drive to replace the Yamasaki Studio where the Twin Towers were born is an expression of the same heedless, heartless, spirit as efforts to erase airbrush them out of the movies.

On January 4, 2005 PAUL D. COLFORD, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, wrote:

Fight on for WTC designer's studio

Preservationists in Troy, Mich., are fighting to save the simple studio where architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the twin towers. The one-story building sits on 5 wooded acres alongside the Marriott Troy, whose owner is buying the site for a reported $4.35 million in order to expand the hotel.

Architect Paul Chu Lin sits on Troy's Historic District Study Committee and wants to save Yamasaki's space.

"We want to . . . make this a national Center for Good American Citizenship and be a partner with the Freedom Tower in New York," he said.

Yamasaki built the studio, near his Troy home, soon after the Port Authority hired him in 1962 to design the World Trade Center.

He died at 73 in 1986 - 15 years before 9/11 - and his architectural firm later sold the Troy building. The city employees' pension fund now owns the studio and leases it to another design company.

A representative of the Marriott's owner - Sunstone Hotel Investors of San Clemente, Calif. - couldn't be reached yesterday for comment.



Letters to Marriott and the Troy Historic District Committee urging them to preserve this piece of WTC history should be directed to:

City of Troy Historic District Study Committee
500 W. Big Beaver
Troy, MI 48084

Mr. J. Willard Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO
Marriott International, Corporate Headquarters
One Marriott Drive
Washington, D.C. 20058

Or contact Marriott online using this form:
https://marriott.com/suggest/suggest.mi


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