Daniel Libeskind's plan for ground zero was the people's choice, but the architect has been virtually neutralized by commercial forces. Of all the architects who presented entries in last year's World Trade Center competition, Daniel Libeskind was the sole designer who spoke emotively, translating the feelings that pervade this sacred piece of land into a three-dimensional corollary. Central to his design was a 70-foot-deep pit that exposed two raw and potent symbols, the bedrock of the site and the famous slurry wall that withstood the assault. The geometries of that day and that hour-the paths of the fire trucks, the angles of the sun-ordered his site plan and the placement of the towers, on whose angular surfaces and faceted shapes the geometries were inscribed. Libeskind's original scheme earned first place because he endowed his project with that most fragile architectural quality, aura. From bedrock to pinnacle, the design was cut-on the bias-from the same cloth. That vision has been so altered that it is no longer on the table. The pit has risen 40 feet and looks as sanitized as a putting green: There is no bedrock left, and very little slurry wall. Libeskind's wedge-shaped Park of Heroes has been narrowed down to the width of a large sidewalk, no longer a mirror image of the adjacent Wedge of Light (which itself turns out not to have direct sunlight as originally advertised by Libeskind). An elevated promenade encircling the project has been eliminated. The asymmetry of the Freedom Tower rising beside its host skyscraper may be sacrificed for a spire placed atop the tower. The angular footprints of the towers have been squared to align with the streets. The design of the transportation hub has been awarded to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Libeskind, whose architectural vision for the redesign of ground zero captured millions of hearts and minds, has emerged as a human fig leaf for the real design and reconstruction plans now under way. While Libeskind remains the nominal site planner, developer Larry Silverstein has effectively taken control of the bulk of the design package, maintaining that as leaseholder he has the right and obligation to direct the reconstruction. Two weeks ago, Silverstein rolled out Sir Norman Foster of England, Fumihiko Maki of Japan, and Jean Nouvel of France as the architects for three of the five towers. Earlier, Silverstein appointed David Childs of New York's Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as lead architect of the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower. In the process, Libeskind has been all but routed from the project; he is responsible only for about 4 percent of the estimated square-footage. Other than the museum at the edge of the reduced pit and the general outline of the site plan, there is little left of the Libeskind scheme visually or conceptually. Five wildly different architectural signatures-Foster, Maki, Calatrava, Nouvel, Childs-do not add up to a coherent vision. Full article here.