Return to the 9/11 Memorial in the Evening

On Friday evening, George and I returned to the World Trade Center site in the evening to see how things would look in the changing light.  

Corridor of the new Fulton Street Transit Hub which will eventually connect to the WTC site.
Photo by Blomme-McClure

As we approached the site down Fulton Street we were looking right at the spikes of Santiago Calatrava's Transportation Center.  

Looking down Fulton Street toward One WTC (left) and Seven WTC (right).
The ribs of the Calatrava's Transportation Center are emerging at far left.Photo by Blomme-McClure 

It seemed like they had made quite a bit of progress since our earlier visit.

The WTC Transportation Center by Santiago Calatrava looks kind of like a fish skeleton.
Photo by Blomme-McClure

Four World Trade Center by Fumihiko Maki is still by far my favorite building on the site and it is fascinating to watch it morph as the sun sets.

Four WTC by Fumihiko Maki from Church Street with reflections of One Liberty Plaza
(the old U.S. Steel Building, then Merrill Lynch, now multi-tenant) and One WTC.
Photo by Blomme-McClure

As you move around the site its immaculate curtain wall keeps drawing your eye back.

One of the eerie things about all of the reflective surfaces on One and Four and Seven WTC is how they catch the silhouettes of jets coming up the Hudson in the routine landing path to LaGuardia.

Reflection of jet over the Hudson in Four WTC curtainwall.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

About every two-to-three minutes a dark, shimmering image of a jet crosses the buildings.  Anyone who has seen (and seen and seen) the TV images of the jet smashing into the South Tower will be startled by these reminders of that awful day.

There's a reason that the base of One WTC is a concrete bunker -- 9/11.  By the way, the base looks better in the late afternoon light, but the transition is still awkward.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

One thing that becomes clear is that the site will be greatly improved when it is finally opened on all sides.  Right now, the crowds coming to the museum are mostly entering the site from the Liberty & Greenwich Streets corner (there is another entrance from West Street).  Eventually, as the rest of the buildings on the site are completed and occupied there will be access to the site from all sides.  There will be a north/south pedestrian corridor that will reconnect Greenwich Street and an east/west pedestrian corridor extending from Fulton Street across the site to West Street (which were both blocked off by the configuration of the old World Trade Center on its raised plaza).

We sat down on one of the stone benches near the museum to rest awhile and were suddenly aware of a loud buzzing sound and eventually found that there was a lone welder high up in the spine of the Transportation Center working on one of the ribs.

Looking east at the skeleton of the Transportation Center.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

Welder high up in the ribs of the Transportation Center.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

As the sun sets, the lights come on in the memorial pools and in the groves of trees around them.  

Lights in the North Memorial Pool illuminate the falls from the bottom and also the names of 9/11 victims incised in the bronze railings.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

There are lights at the bottom of the falls that light the falls, but leave the pools mostly dark.  There are also lights under the bronze railings that make the incised names glow.  

Looking across the North Memorial Pool to the Museum's Entrance Pavilion.  
Photo by Blomme-McClure

The mast/antenna/minaret atop One WTC emits a blue/white light.  It improves that element of the design, but looks rather like a New Years Eve party hat on a sober judge.

The mast atop One WTC lights up at night.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

Bands of light outline the top stages of Four WTC and the colors of the sunset sky silhouette the reflected buildings in Battery Park City.

Four WTC at twilight with buildings of the World Financial Center in Battery Park City reflected in curtainwall.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

The reflections of Battery Park City apartment buildings in Four WTC.  Photo by Blomme-McClure

It is a peaceful and reflective time.  The construction work has stopped, the commuters have gone home, the sound of the falling water continues to muffle the sounds of the city.

Dying light on a white birthday rose on the South Memorial Pool.  Photo by Blomme-McClure