The Freedom Tower

This just in from ProjectRebirth.org:

Was it a renewed sense of optimism that sparked a wave of compounding successes in the redevelopment efforts at the World Trade Center last year? Or perhaps it was a series of well-timed achievements on the part of builders and developers that reinvigorated the public mindset of what was being done there. Whether hope spawned progress or vice versa, it is clear that the aura surrounding Ground Zero in 2007 is vastly different than that of only twelve months ago.

The realization of the master plan for the World Trade Center will undoubtedly take many years to complete. And while offices, businesses, transit links and thoroughfares are being reconstructed and in some cases relocated in the interim, there is one thing that inevitably remains: the sanctity of the site itself.

Site construction takes place each day with relatively little interruption, and crews at the site are poised to bring the steel columns of the Freedom Tower above street level. Seven World Trade Center has opened its doors to tenants, and the public at large has seen the unveiled forms of the remaining towers that will ornament the site’s periphery. Publicized success has brought with it a widened sense of simmering exuberance that was in rare supply a year ago.

The site of the 1993 and 2001 terror attacks has become a vibrant construction site. The solemn sense of remembrance felt by visitors to Ground Zero now shares its spotlight with a sense of renewal. Yet to many, the role of the site as an icon of past tragedies there remains primary. Beset amongst the flurry of agencies working to restore the World Trade Center complex are several groups dedicated to the preservation of the solemn memories upon which the new structures will rise.

As the guiding spirit of the redevelopment efforts, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has operated for five years under the creed, “Remember, Rebuild, Renew”. It could be said that of this three-pronged offensive, Remembrance set up camp at 120 Liberty Street. From a modest storefront on the southern edge of Ground Zero, an association comprised of those who lost friends and family in the 2001 attacks have opened the Tribute Center, an interactive exhibition space dedicated exclusively to the act of remembering.