3. Global Architecture, Patriotic Skyscrapers, and a Cathedral Shopping Mall

Abstract

Chapter 3 situates the memorial quadrant of the memorial and museum at Ground Zero within the broader context of the rebuilding of the area and the role of architecture, in particular high-end celebrity architecture. Financed by the unseemly transfer of $25 billion in public funds to the private sector, the rebuilding of downtown has resulted in a heavily fortified skyscraper and a glorified transportation center that provides a spectacular cathedral structure for what is essentially a shopping mall. This chapter aims to understand how the world of corporate celebrity architecture, which the private real estate interests and governmental agencies, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, wanted to deploy, ultimately produced a rebuilt downtown that had little interest in the needs of the public. This chapter situates these expensive and misguided architectural projects in relation to the shifting terrain of New York real estate and the reshaping of the city skyline through illicit global capital. Ultimately, the rebuilding of downtown is a cautionary tale in how the discourses of memory can get highjacked by the world of private interests, and in particular, the world of real estate development.