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 There
was darkness on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the
architect Santiago Calatrava would bring a flood of
light in the form of a winged railway station, draped in
glass, suffused with natural illumination and, on
occasion, open to the clear skies above. Mr. Calatrava's
design for the permanent World Trade Center PATH
terminal — a soaring sculptural steel-and-glass shell
covering a cathedral-like concourse and a network of
passageways that would knit commuter trains, ferry
boats, 14 subway lines and an entire swath of Lower
Manhattan — was unveiled today to quick acclaim.
"When you see the model, `Wow' is the first word
that's just got to come to your mind," said Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg. He joined in the unveiling with
Gov. George E. Pataki and officials of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, which will build
the terminal. It may cost up to $2 billion and take five
years to complete.
The PATH system (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) links
New Jersey, through tubes under the Hudson River, to
Lower Manhattan and Midtown. Some 67,000 commuters
boarded PATH trains at the World Trade Center before the
attack. Today, a temporary, open-air replacement station
is used daily by about 30,000 travelers. The Port
Authority estimates that ridership at the new terminal
will eventually reach 80,000.
But in its aesthetics and logistics, Mr. Calatrava's
design aspires to be far more than a commuter rail
station, vital as that is to Lower Manhattan. Its
admirers are already mentioning it in the same breath as
the old Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal,
which Mr. Calatrava claimed as his "deepest
inspirational object."
Like the original Penn Station, the PATH terminal
would bathe travelers in daylight, which would reach all
the way to the train platforms 60 feet below ground
through the use of glass-block floors above. And like
Grand Central, it would serve as the hub of an
underground network linking numerous subway stations and
skyscrapers. But it would also do something neither of
these buildings did: move.
Rather than relying on words alone, Mr. Calatrava
took pastels to paper today on an easel set up in the
Winter Garden of the World Financial Center at Battery
Park City. He quickly sketched a child releasing a bird
into the air, then superimposed that image on elevations
and cross-sections of his terminal design. The theme of
flight was set. Then he showed two counterpoised
canopies over the main concourse, rising some 150 feet
like skeletal birds' wings, that could be retracted
hydraulically in about two minutes to create a tapered
opening almost 50 feet wide at its center. This would
ventilate smoke from the building in case of fire and
provide natural air-conditioning.
"On a beautiful summer day," Mr. Calatrava
said, "the building can work not as a greenhouse
but as an open space." He also envisioned the
symbolic power of opening the roof every year on the
morning of Sept. 11, "giving us the sense of
unprotection." "The building itself expresses
the memory of Sept. 11," said Mr. Calatrava, 52, a
Spanish architect, engineer and artist, who is widely
admired for the lyrical quality of his bridges and train
stations. Though he has a home on the Upper East Side,
the PATH terminal would be Mr. Calatrava's first
structure in New York City. (His partners in the design
and engineering team are DMJM & Harris and the STV
Group.)
The main axis of the 360-foot-long concourse would be
aligned with the angle of the sun at 10:28 on the
morning of Sept. 11, when the second World Trade Center
tower collapsed. The angle of the canopies' outer edges
would mark the line of the sun at 8:46 that morning,
when the first jetliner hit the towers. An architectural
expression of these angles was called for in the master
site plan by Studio Daniel Libeskind. They formed the
Wedge of Light plaza on either side of Fulton Street. In
this plan, the PATH terminal was to be south of the
plaza, in the approximate location of Dey Street,
adjoining one of the planned office buildings.
Mr. Calatrava pulled the terminal northward, making
it a freestanding structure surrounded by plazas,
thereby reopening Dey Street. Because the terminal
integrally expresses the Wedge of Light, its design won
a warm endorsement from Mr. Libeskind, who has otherwise
been struggling to preserve key elements of his year-old
site plan. It was also embraced by Nikki Stern, whose
husband, James E. Potorti of Marsh & McLennan,
perished in the north tower. After calling up the images
of Mr. Calatrava's design to the screen of her computer,
she said her first reaction was — indeed —
"Wow." "My second reaction was how
beautifully it complements Daniel's plan," Ms.
Stern said, "and how pleased I am that the Port
Authority allowed Calatrava to create something that is
respectful, yet so hopeful and functional."
That is not to say that difficult issues do not
remain. Among them is the extent to which the new
terminal will encroach on the footprints of the north
and south towers, expressed as column footings that
still remain at the bottom of the building foundations.
Construction of the terminal will have to be coordinated
with the design of the memorial, which calls for twin
voids marking the towers' location, and with the Church
Street office towers planned by Silverstein Properties.
The PATH terminal would be flanked by 62- and 65-story
skyscrapers.
Only three months ago, the $323 million temporary
PATH station opened. A month later, the design of the
1,776-foot Freedom Tower was announced. And last week,
the design of the memorial, "Reflecting
Absence," was made public.
The permanent PATH terminal and its surrounding
network of passageways carries the largest price tag of
any of these projects: up to $2 billion, financed with
$1.7 billion from the Federal Transit Administration and
$300 million in insurance proceeds.
Governor Pataki seemed to anticipate criticism of the
project as an extravagance when he summoned the memory
of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a champion of
building a new Penn Station. Kent L. Barwick, the
president of the Municipal Art Society, was in the
audience at the Winter Garden. He said great train
stations "are our temples, our cathedrals." Of
the Calatrava design, he added, "This space has
that potential." Just then, Robert L. Tierney, the
chairman of the city Landmarks Preservation Commission,
came up. "So, Kent, should we pre-emptively
landmark this?" he asked. The terminal will not in
fact be eligible until it turns 30 years old. But
glancing over at the shimmering models nearby, Mr.
Tierney said, "This will still be flying at that
age."
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