NEWS: National Trust makes WTC Site one of 11 Most Endangered
From the NY Times: for ful story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/nyregion/10cnd-stair.html
May 10, 2006
‘Survivors’ Stairway’ Is Marked as Endangered
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The last above-ground remnant of the World Trade Center — a battered but recognizable staircase used by hundreds to flee the inferno of 9/11 — is one of the most endangered historical places in America, the National Trust for Historic Preservation said today.
That is because it stands in the way of an office tower designed by Norman Foster of London and planned by Larry A. Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties.
“Silverstein Properties has not made a commitment to preserve the staircase and we’re urging them to do so,” said Richard Moe, the president of the trust, a private, nonprofit organization that uses persuasive influence in place of any regulatory power.
“It will be the most dramatic original piece of the site that will have meaning to generations to come,” Mr. Moe said. “This obviously has national significance because 9/11 had such a cataclysmic effect.”
The decision by the trust to place the “survivors’ stairway” on its much-noted annual list of 11 endangered historical places will undoubtedly raise the profile of an overlooked but significant architectural artifact from Sept. 11, 2001.
It may also place Mr. Silverstein in a position he has so far managed to avoid: confrontation with attack survivors and preservationists.
Also on the list are the “doo wop” motels of the Jersey Shore (Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood). This ensemble of exuberant kitsch is believed to be the largest collection of mid-20th-century commercial resort architecture in the nation, the trust added, and is endangered by development plans.