Amy Sewell

What were those World Trade Center site architects thinking! Where are the playgrounds, the IMAX theater, the public Jacuzzis, and the mountain bike and skate-board park?

Undeterred by the weight of thousands of opinions preceding theirs, a class of P.S. 89 third-graders took on the coveted design assignment last month as part of a social studies project.

		The children, many of whom witnessed the disaster, agreed that they cared more than kids who lived farther away. “It’s different for us because we were in the middle,” Alex Wainger explained. After visiting the competing site plans at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden, the students drew pictures and built 3-D models of their designs with the help of Studio In A School, an organization that brings professional artists into classrooms. Then they sat down with their teacher, Kristie Breed, and talked about their ideas—many of which seemed like great fun if not sound urban planning. “I want to go there and pop popcorn and eat cake and watch a large-screen TV,” said Rian Plummer. Emel Saat wanted a pool where visitors could swim year round. Diksha Gupta’s vision of the site was “pretty and fun and where you can jump and slide or play games.” Others mimicked the mood of the public for a simple and respectful mixture of commerce and memorial. Brandon Diaz saw two buildings connected by a piece of metal from one of the old World Trade Center buildings, surrounded by a memorial where the WTC once stood. Hannah Whalen suggested “a museum with the stuff they found around the area after they cleaned it up,” and Katherine Lombardi’s memorial included listing the names of the people who died.
Many of the kids were concerned about the buildings’ vulnerability to another attack. Several rejected the idea of tall buildings (“If they fall, it might make it like September 11th—or worse,” Nicole Galiber said); others specified building materials. Cyrus Ra designed a building shaped like a tunnel “so an airplane can fly right through it rather than hit it.” He didn’t like the idea of using glass “because it could break.”

“I think they should be rubber buildings,” said Katherine Lombardi, “so that if a plane bounces into it, it would bounce right back.” Many children reminisced about visiting the World Trade Center, recalling the candy and toy stores. Joey Yuen remembered how he “used to go up to the highest level—to see the world.” Expressing mixed emotions about the building process, Hannah Whalen said, with an air of resignation, “I’m happy to have new buildings and sad the towers are not out there,” Katherine Lombardi solemnly agreed. “I’m happy, mad, sad, everything,” she said.