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http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/55011.htmFebruary 21, 2003 -- Development officials are expected to pick the Ground Zero plan by architect Daniel Libeskind - but the new World Trade Center is likely to end up looking a lot different from the way he envisioned it.
And that will come as a huge surprise to many New Yorkers, who had been led to expect that the buildings that go up on the city's hallowed ground will look just the way they do in the models that have been debated for weeks.
"It's at this point when the plan collides with reality," said Craig Whitaker, an architect and frequent critic of the planning process. "The next phase in this journey is one that's going to be a very difficult job."
Officials see Libeskind's plan as flexible, something they can shape to their needs.
"The feeling is that Libeskind is going to be easier to do," said one official close to the process.
Libeskind's plan centers on several distinctive elements - a memorial area in the open pit, a towering vertical garden, and a series of jagged-edged office towers.
But planners have questions about their practicality.
But even as Libeskind emerged as a favorite among state and city officials - with a decision due next week - many of the same people are starting to downplay the significance of the selection.
In indicating a preference for the Libeskind scheme last week, Mayor Bloomberg stressed that "what comes out of this are suggestions."
Port Authority Executive Director Joe Seymour appeared to echo that sentiment yesterday, when he responded to questions about the feasibility of the two plans under consideration by saying, "These are plans that are to provide an inspiration for future development."
Officials with the PA, which owns Ground Zero, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. have been analyzing the Libeskind plan and a scheme by the THINK team of architects, which proposes to build two latticework structures over the Twin Tower footprints.
A major hurdle for both teams has been the way they deal with the pit at Ground Zero, which the PA wants to use for a two-story bus garage, an expanded PATH terminal and other infrastructure.
Libeskind's solution has been to raise most of his proposed memorial area off the bedrock floor of the pit and place it on a platform 20 to 30 feet below street level - with the infrastructure beneath it. But as the floor of the pit creeps upward, it raises the possibility that it may disappear altogether.
World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and other downtown real-estate interests have questioned whether corporations would want to rent office space overlooking a six-acre depression.
And residents of Battery Park City have complained the pit cuts them off from the rest of lower Manhattan - much as the elevated plaza of the old trade center once did.
Officials say that ultimately, the fate of the pit will be decided by a design competition for a memorial.
Libeskind's plan also calls for the world's tallest building - a narrow, 1,776-foot spire. This would contain offices and, on the upper floors, six separate botanic gardens showcasing different ecosystems, such as a desert and a rain forest.
But experts say building and maintaining such a structure would be very costly - and it's not clear where the money would come from.
The Libeskind scheme also shows several jagged-edged buildings to replace a portion of the office space destroyed on 9/11. But the Berlin-based designer has never built an office tower - and it's likely that other architects would be brought in to create these structures.
Instead, Libeskind specializes in museums, like the Jewish Museum in Berlin - and he's a natural choice to carry out the design of a 9/11 museum on the site.
Officials have also been impressed with his design for a train station linking the PATH and the subways.
