by Lionel Bascom — August 17th, 2007 — 1 comment
‘FEEL THE LOVE, says The Downtown Express:
“Rare is the New York City compromise in which all parties walk away happy. But the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation may have achieved just that with its new plan to preserve the core of the (World Trade Center’s) Vesey Street staircase.
The blog says preservationists were pleased because the staircase will be kept on the World Trade Center site and because the stairs themselves will remain intact as a part of the staircase stairs leading to the memorial (the hulking support structure would be dismantled). Local parents were pleased because the 175-ton artifact would no longer be stored on the site of a potential school.
But did the plan please Bill Love, one of the stairway’s biggest critics? Indeed it did. Love had called the stairway “rubble” and argued against preserving it based on cost and practicality issues. However, he wrote in an email last Thursday that based on what he had read, the new plan sounded like a positive step.
“Incorporating the stairs into the memorial below grade and dismantling the rest of the huge structure is a very reasonable solution that I believe should be acceptable to everyone,” Love wrote.
11:22 AM in Uncategorized, The Construction, World Trade Center, Ground Zero, Related Stories, Freedom Tower News, Neighbourhood
This simple piece of furniture, a final staircase to freedom, symbolizes the perseverance and fortitude of the first responders and is a solemn reminder of the last step in each precious life. It appears that Love recognizes the importance of remembering such grandeur there exists in simplicity.
The collective spirit of this hallowed ground continues to thrive. To honor this spirit, I present the following verse by Emily Dickinson:
Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God’s residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.
Jeanne · August 17th, 2007 at 10:18 pm