Iconic Absence
“I am talking about the skyline because it has become very clear to me that while the horrendous loss of life is of course first and foremost in peoples' minds, the affection that people had for the skyline follows pretty closely behind. People really did care about the skyline as an object. They did not see it only as the sum total of the buildings. They saw it as a thing unto itself, and it was the violation of that thing that has so shaken people, including many - myself included - who did not necessarily feel any great affection for the World Trade Center towers themselves as objects of architecture.” - http://www.paulgoldberger.com/lectures/9
World Trade Center at sunrise from Jamaica Bay, Queens, NY (near JFK Airport).
For many New Yorkers a physical sense of loss dominates their memory. The World Trade Center had anchored the skyline of the city since the late 1960s, and was visible from much of the city. It had become iconic, a symbol of the city, an essential part of daily life, and part of the self-image of New Yorkers.
“For as long as I can remember, the World Trade Center has been a part of my consciousness. I grew up in New Jersey, and my father commuted to downtown Manhattan every weekday, via NJ Transit to Newark and then the PATH to the WTC. Even if I’d never visited there myself, the towers were still plainly visible from Newark Airport, from a large stretch of the Turnpike, and even from a lookout point in the Watchung Mountains near my home.” -
http://www.willisboyce.com/wtc.htm
When so many died, it may seem odd, or even insensitive, to discuss buildings, but the image of any community is important. How does a place deal with landmark loss? Why might it be very important to many New Yorkers to have the site rebuilt, to have, once again, towers of that size? Some New Yorkers wanted to reconstruct the World Trade Center, as the Pentagon was reconstructed after September 11. What would you think of that idea? What landmarks define where you live? Have any local landmarks been lost?
Dublin, Ireland - Nelson Pillar and its replacement - Dublin Spire
You may want to search local history to find lost landmarks, go out and photograph locations where landmarks once existed. How will you search for reports of how locals felt when these landmarks were lost? What is the memory now?
Tempe, Arizona rescued this historic Flour Mill
An exciting next step would be to create QR codes to tag locations in your community. These QR codes might lead to images of landmark views of the past, or to interviews with those who remember the landmark, or to stories about the landmark.
http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator
http://keremerkan.net/qr-code-and-2d-code-generator/
https://market.android.com/details?id=excelsior.qr.generator
Associated viewing, the film Man on Wire (2008)
The World Trade Center was an iconic space for New Yorkers, right from the start, and a French performance artist had a huge impact on that...