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The proposed South Tower is to be similar to the North one, but twice as tall. It shall have three observation decks as shown, where the truss narrows step by step. The 1st observation deck is to be at 2,205' (673m), the 2nd at 2,542' (775m) and the 3rd one at 2,754' (840m). To proportion the towers, I observed the golden-section-rule, once championed by Le Corbusier, the great French architect, comparable in fame to the our Frank Lloyd Wright. That is that the smaller part of a division is proportional to the larger one in the same way as the larger one to the whole, i.e., 38.2% to 61.8%. Thus each tower extension or addition is smaller and smaller, which through adding to the perspective-effect shall make this tower look even taller than it really will be. Thus, the sides of the 1st addition are to be 128' (39m) and that of the 2nd is 80' (24m). From the top of this tower, a giant, 133' tall tapered flag-pole shall extend up to hold a 50'x82' large kevlar-reinforced nylon flag of the USA, which is to be permanently lit by reflectors from under. This flag shall be visible from 66 miles away, e.g., from Trenton, New Jersey or Bridgeport, Connecticut and shall fly permanently, unless the President will order it to be half way down on its pole. The pole and the trusses are to be of steel, galvanized or painted. Note that the tip of the flag is to be 2,887' (880m), the far tallest in New York, NY and the whole world. In comparison, the tallest building on earth today is the Petronas Tower, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is 1,483' (452m) tall and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is 985' (300m) tall. The South Tower is to be inaugurated after one or two years of the inauguration date of the South tower on September 11th. From that date on, the second half of the taller South Tower -- above level 1,353' (420m) -- shall function similarly as the South Tower before, in memoriam of the heroes and innocent victims of the tragedy, which bent the knees of a Great Nation. From there on, the South Tower and the lower half of the North Tower shall advertise anything that is paid for, appropriate and decent. Revenues shall be allocated as before and if exceed needs, shall be used to found fight against terrorism in US soil.
The wire mesh shell shall be made of seven-strand pre-stressing cables of horizontal, vertical and diagonal raster at 12" apart. At each mesh point a 6" diameter reflector box shall be attached, which would hold a white, a red, a green and a blue lamp bulbs in marine cover. Over 9 million such electrical boxes shall form the giant billboards. 18' tall letters at 24' spacing shall read form a mile away by a 20/20 vision person. The flagpole may eject telescopically to avoid the need of anyone to climb that high elevation. This open structure and its shell shall allow for very small wind resistance. At times, high wind shall whistle through.
In the initial confusion of the attack, many believe that we would not have such tragedy in our soil, had not we involved and take sides in "an ancient biblical feud". Therefore, many could hesitate donating for building the memorial towers, if the architect and engineer of record would not be American. A design-build contractor is assumed to be the most appropriate to finish this project within reasonable but tight time and budget constraints. Feasible constraints are $0.5-1b, 1-2yr for the North Tower and $2-4b, 2-4yr for the South Tower.
Although I am an architect and a structural engineer, I work in the semiconductor industry now and have no selfish interest in the design work of this project. However, I plan to be one of the first pilgrims to the memorial if ever built and I would be happy if this proposal would be publicly discussed. I think people would not like to work on the 110th floor, at least not on this 16-acre site anymore. The commercial use of the towers would remind us that once this was the center of the world trade. The light frame structure would allow for reuse of the old steel structure -- melted down ad cast again -- and to erect an even taller structure in very short time on a non-straining budget. The site -- NY 10048 --is too expensive for a 16-acre memorial garden. If New York wants to replace the ten million square feet office space lost by the collapse of the twin towers, the other damaged five buildings around could be rebuilt to be much larger, but perhaps not taller than 42 stories. The era of skyscraper offices may be over in this land but not for the telecommunication towers. The golden section rule not only nature's law and the most esthetically pleasing one, but shall also remind us to similar rules prevalent in commerce. Perhaps it is time to return to the golden standard in finance as well. Many could meditate about this looking at the new twin towers as proposed here.
The flag would fly almost a kilometer high in defiance of the enemies of freedom and its stronghold, the United States of America. Good bless the memory of the heroes of the national 9-11 tragedy.
Contact: E-mail: Zoltan Kemeny