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Robert Arens
The Thickened Urban Surface:
  Proposals for the World Trade Center

ON TUESDAY, February 25, 2003, in a lecture jointly sponsored by the KCDC and AIA Kansas City, Kansas State professor of architecture Robert Arens offered his insider's view of the competition to re-design the World Trade Center complex.

On Wednesday, February 26, Prof. Arens was a guest on local NPR affiliate KCUR's public affairs talkshow, Up to Date.

Arens, a member of the team whose design has been selected for the redevelopment of Ground Zero, described the concepts of urban public space developed in the "Memory Foundations" proposal by Berlin-based Studio Daniel Libeskind, and evaluated seven other proposals for redevelopment of the site.

During the design process, the Studio Libeskind team turned their attention from the design of buildings to the exploration of the public spaces between and within them. This resulted in the idea of a central vertical axis devoted to public use, reaching towards a distinctive spire that defines the world's tallest building.

Prof. Arens was collaborating with Studio Libeskind on the design of the Denver Art Museum last summer when the latter was invited to participate in the design competition organized by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which is overseeing reconstruction of the World Trade Center site.

The Libeskind scheme proposes a "thickened" urban surface that draws public space upward towards a nearly 1,800-foot tall hanging garden, and downward into a 70-foot deep memorial defined by the exposed foundation walls of the original Trade Center complex. Intersecting this vertical axis of public space at ground level are a Park of Heroes and Wedge of Light. Each year on September 11, during the approximate time between the first attack and the collapse of the second tower, two rays of light will project through the park.

Since its unveiling, "Memory Foundations" has been acclaimed by many architectural critics and the public. The LMDC formally announced that Studio Libeskind had been selected as the designer for the site February 27, 2003.

About the Speaker

Robert Arens is a practicing architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at Kansas State University. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, which include upper-level studio courses and classes in building construction and technology, he has been involved in a number of innovative urban architecture projects.

His most recent work includes serving as design coordinator for the Denver Art Museum Expansion, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind in a joint venture with the Davis Partnership, which led to his involvement in Libeskind's design study for the World Trade Center site. His designs have been exhibited throughout the United States, and he has an extensive record of professional and research publications.