Plans for WTC site include memorials, garden, world's tallest building

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Plans for redeveloping the World Trade Center site include proposals for memorials on the tops of buildings and below ground, a garden and the tallest building in the world, a published report said.

Although it is not yet known which elements will make it into the final design, the director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency charged with overseeing the redevelopment process, praised the new plans for their creativity, The New York Times reported Friday.

Calling them ``astoundingly innovative, creative and exciting,'' the director, Roland Betts, said he was not worried about raising expectations too high.

``They're really good, and they did things that are so different from one another that it's astounding,'' Betts said.

Seven architecture teams were assigned to develop plans for the site in September after the original six plans were widely criticized for being unimaginative. The new plans will be presented in their final form next month.

Unnamed officials told the Times each of the seven plans is centered on a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. One plan uses the top of a tower as a memorial, while another incorporates a 19th-century style garden as part of its remembrance to the victims.

At least one of the plans extends below ground to expose subterranean levels of the trade center site.