Both the Times and the Observer report today on the testy negotiations between the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein that are threatening to derail the latest World Trade Center redevelopment timeline, and the news is?surprise!?terrible. Believe it or not, the city's most bogged-down shitshow is now even more confusing and perhaps worse-off than ever. What's clear is this: Fumihiko Maki's Tower 4, the smallest of Silverstein's three Freedom Tower spin-off skyscrapers, is still full-steam ahead, essentially because the Port Authority and City of New York are taking most of the office space and paying premium rents even though nobody else wants the space. As for Towers 2 and 3, designed by Norman Foster and Richard Rogers respectively, the Port Authority would like to leave the sites empty or build the lower floors and then complete the buildings in 2022 and 2030?because leaving two partially-built stumps to rot for years on the spot where the Twin Towers were leveled carries no depressing symbolism whatsoever.
· As Finance Offices Empty, Developers Rethink Ground Zero [NYT]
· Port, Silverstein at Odds Over Last Two Towers; Bloomberg to the Rescue? [NYO]
· World Trade Center Redevelopment coverage [Curbed]
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