World Trade Centre rebuilding plans sent back to drawing board

NEW YORK - The Freedom Tower, the symbolic centrepiece of plans to rebuild at the World Trade Centre site, must be redesigned to address security concerns raised by New York police, New York governor George Pataki said today.

"A new design for the Freedom Tower is required in order to meet NYPD's security standards," Pataki said in a statement.

Pataki made the announcement after a meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Port Authority, which owns the site, developer Larry Silverstein and the New York Police Department to discuss security aspects of the design.

Pataki insisted the building would remain "a bold symbol" that "can be built consistent with (architect) Daniel Libeskind's master site plan."

New York police fear the planned placement of the 540m office tower - a height symbolic of the America's independence in 1776 - would make it difficult to guard against the threat of truck bombs given the heavy traffic along nearby West Street.

Libeskind's team, whose plans for the tower were unveiled in late 2003 after a lengthy public competition, are now frantically sketching plans to move it back from the street, threatening the planned 2009 opening.

Local media have speculated that the impending redesign - in the news in recent days after The New York Times obtained a copy of a report detailing the police concerns - could delay the building of the tower by one year and may require substantial design changes.

A spokeswoman for Bloomberg said the redesign would only delay the opening of the building by "weeks".

Pataki said architects will work for the next several weeks to "come up with yet another magnificent design."

The redesign is just the latest problem to beset the rebuilding at the site where the World Trade Centre's twin towers stood until the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Some families of those who died in attacks objected to the commercial building on a site where so many died - concerns that were largely assuaged by a planned memorial. Then Silverstein had to battle insurance companies in court to secure enough cash to rebuild.

More recently, Goldman Sachs, which had planned to occupy another building on the site, pulled out due to design concerns, and local media have reported that Silverstein has yet to secure any significant commitments for tenants.

The problems at the site have dogged Bloomberg, who has been accused of neglecting the project because of his desire to bring the Olympics to New York.

- REUTERS