December 16th - December 22nd, 2005

LMDC to Purchase Land Adjacent to 130 Liberty

Friday, December 16: The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) board has approved a $59 million deal to purchase a 19,000-square-foot parcel of land next to the former Deutsche Bank building, the Daily News reported. The approval, announced at the rebuilding agency's monthly board meeting on December 15, will provide for the conversion of the tract, a parking lot until 9/11, into the "southern site" of the World Trade Center development. The redeveloped area will include an office building, a park, and a reconstructed of St. Nicholas Church.

Pataki Issues Deadline to Silverstein

Friday, December 16: Gov. George Pataki gave developer Larry Silverstein a three-month deadline to convince the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to allow him to rebuild the entire World Trade Center site, the New York Post reported.

Silverstein vowed to adhere to this deadline, telling the paper, "There are open issues between us and the Port Authority. We expect ultimately to develop the entire site . . . and any open issues between us and the Port will be dealt with in the next 90 days."

Silverstein Names Architect for WTC Tower Two and Announces First 7 WTC Tenant

Friday, December 16: Developer Larry Silverstein has asked British architect Lord Norman Foster to design the site's "tower two," an office building scheduled for construction at 200 Greenwich Street, the New York Times reported. Foster was among the group of architects that submitted design plans for buildings to replace the original twin towers in 2003, a bid he ultimately lost to master planner Daniel Libeskind. In the same story, the Times also reported that Silverstein has signed the New York Academy of Sciences as his first tenant for 7 World Trade Center. To learn more about Foster's nomination as tower two architect, click here. To learn more about the New York Academy of Sciences's lease at 7 WTC, click here.

WTC Memorial Commemorative Postage Stamp Proposed

Tuesday, December 20: Members of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation are calling for the release of a commemorative postage stamp to coincide with the opening of the memorial, "Reflecting Absence," in 2009, the New York Post reported.

"A commemorative stamp will help encourage the entire nation to remember the loss and sacrifice of so many during and after the attacks," foundation Vice President Lynn Rasic told the paper.

To persuade the Postal Service to back the commemorative stamp, the foundation has launched a petition-signing campaign and hopes to get 25,000 signatures by the start of memorial construction this spring to present to Postmaster General John Potter, the paper added. The foundation has posted illustrations of what the stamp might look like on its website, but as Rasic told the Post, "The Postal Services chooses its own designs. These are just ideas to get people excited."

WTC Memorial Foundation Raises Funds Through Sale of WTC Photos

Tuesday, December 20: In an effort to raise money for the World Trade Center Memorial, the Memorial Foundation is selling pictures of the former World Trade Center through its website, www.buildthememorial.org, the Daily News reported.   

Foundation Vice President Lynn Rasic told the paper that this "is just one of the ways we're looking to involve the public in helping to build the memorial and remember the enormous power of the buildings."

More than 20 percent of the money needed to build the memorial has already been raised by the foundation, which is planning to begin construction in the spring, the News reported.  The foundation will receive 60 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the photographs, which will range in cost from $49.95 to $424.95.