Minoru Yamasaki
WTC Drawing
It’s a snowy December 11th, 1964. Minoru Yamasaki sits back against his sofa, chewing lightly on his pipe, staring out at the snowy New York streets. He thinks back on the year he’s had, a busy one to be sure. It was just about this time last year that he had heard from the Port Authority that they were approving his design for the World Trade Center project. This project, a major endeavor, was probably the biggest he would ever do in his lifetime. He had designed a cluster of towers, including two intended to be the tallest on Earth. The project, when complete, was going to be located on 16 acres in downtown Manhattan, including some land that wasn’t even solid yet (they were going to fill in the Bay at a later date) and the other which was filled with the furious tenants of Radio Row, who had lost their legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court and were looking to relocate with a mere $3,000 offered to them as a consolation prize. His design, released in January, had made all of the trade news. Hey, Design Quarterly featured his plan as the “balance between gravity and man.” Commercials had successfully booked up many of the offices for sale in the first building, and it wasn’t going to be completed for another six years. Yes, 1964 had been quite a year.
It’s a snowy December 11th in 2014. A former tenant of World Trade One and survivor of 9/11, sits in her living room in her house, a cozy home located outside Philadelphia. She’s missing NYC. She sits, staring out at the quiet snowy cul-de-sac, wondering what Minoru Yamasaki was really thinking exactly fifty years earlier and why her children, now 12 and 13, had never learned the actual history of World Trade or 9/11. Along with her is her friend, a compatriot, a fellow survivor. The difference is that Deirdre only knew World Trade before 9/11 and after most of the cleanup; Ken only knew WTC as he worked the morgue, a First Responder and K-9 Washington Township Police Officer, in Brooks Brothers for four days following the attack.
Together, Deirdre, Ken and their families have created this website in dedication to World Trade, its survivors, those who served as emergency service personnel, and all those touched by World Trade. The purpose of this website is promote knowledge to our next generation, to provide support to those who need it, including survivors, fire, police, first responders, and other heroes of 9/11, and to promote Patriot’s Day as a national holiday. We hope you enjoy it, use it, share it, contribute to it, and join our battle of love.
