World Trade Center Index

Days after 9/11 that a master plan was selected for the World Trade Center site: 533

Days Daniel Libeskind was given to design what became the approved site plan: 67

Journalists and VIPs present at master-plan announcement ceremony: 2,000

Claims by Libeskind that day that “architecture is the art of compromise”: 1

Days after his selection that Libeskind lost control of “Freedom Tower” to David Childs of SOM: 139

Length in hours of decisive July meeting between Studio Daniel Libeskind and SOM: 8

Percentage of that time spent hashing out a one-paragraph press release describing agreement: 37

Minutes Childs and Libeskind negotiated one-on-one before coming to an impasse: 20

Length in minutes of their giddy Ground Zero photo op the next day: 15

Unsolicited design proposals received by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation: 4,000+

Open binding competitions held for master-plan ideas: 0

Ground Zero design showcases convened by the architecture critics of major national newspapers: 1

Articles by New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp mentioning Ricky Martin
(“el mejor erotic poet of our great new global city”): 6

Articles by Muschamp stressing the importance of defining an architectural program at the WTC site: 1

Months after the announcement of the official programless “design study” that the article appeared: 6

Square feet of potential retail development quietly added to the site last fall: 400,000

Amount in dollars paid to each “design study” team: 40,000

Percentage of architects on “Dream Team” who accused Frank Gehry of being “a total prick” for protesting that amount: 75

Entries for the LMDC competition to design a memorial to the victims of 9/11: 5,200

Memorial entries accepted after 5 p.m. deadline: 24

Acres set aside for memorial in depressed “bathtub”: 4.7

Number of tour bus parking spaces originally planned for the level directly beneath memorial: around 125

Definitions of the word sacred proposed at an LMDC board meeting in April: 2

Minutes spent disputing which definition would apply to word as used in official documents: 15

Firefighters present at meeting to protest the lack of a separate FDNY memorial at site: 13

Minutes spent addressing their concerns: less than 1

Height in year-feet of “Freedom Tower”: 1,776

Height of tower as reported by ,i>U.S. News & World Report: 1,775

Alternate symbolic height proposed by neighborhood activist concerned about shadows: 1,492

Minimum percentage of “Wedge of Light” in shadow during symbolic period each September 11: 40

Maximum percentage: 99

Months until projected cornerstone-laying ceremony for “Freedom Tower”: 11

Months until the 2004 GOP convention opens in Manhattan: 11

Approximate hours a headline asserting connection between two events survived on nytimes.com: 12

Complaints made by LMDC: 1

Corrections published: 1