The building is located at 130 Liberty St. and its razing will clear the way for World Trade Center site plans to move forward. The plan allows for truck security and bus parking to be located below ground and off the World Trade Center site better protecting the memorial. Using the Deutsche Bank site also reduces density on the site by moving the proposed fifth office tower to the property, and creates approximately 30,000 sq. ft. of open space in front of the tower.

Governor George Pataki appointed U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to mediate the dispute between the insurers and Deutsche Bank at the end of October. Mitchell, with the assistance and support of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, assembled and lead a team to resolve the dispute. Under the agreement, the LMDC will purchase the land for $90 million and pay for the demolition of the building. The agreement caps the cost of cleaning and demolition to $45 million and the insurers would pay any costs above the agency's cap. It will take approximately five to seven months from commencement to a clean site.

The building was badly damaged during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks when it suffered a 15-story gash after the south twin tower collapsed. Deutsche Bank had previously settled with insurers Chubb Corp. and Financial Services AG.

Cultural Programming Moving Forward

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and New York State Council on the Arts released a report detailing the vision and next steps for future cultural programming on the World Trade Center site.

The LMDC, state and city reviewed all 113 submissions received in response to the Invitation to Cultural Institutions that was released last June. Submissions came from a wide range of cultural disciplines and organizations, including a number of institutions interested in creating an interpretive museum describing the events of Feb. 26, 1993 and Sept. 11, 2001.

A short-list of these institutions and additional organizations that have the potential to contribute a unique or needed activity or program will be invited to take part in next-stage meetings. Other organizations may be invited to participate in meetings as well.

WTC Memorial Exhibition Launched

A virtual exhibition of all 5,201 submissions received for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition has been launched. Teams from 63 nations and 49 states participated in the competition.

The exhibition is hosted at www.wtcsitememorial.org and allows viewers to see all entries. The submissions are searchable by the name of submitters and the nation or state where they reside. The exhibition also allows visitors to browse through the submissions by entry numbers originally given when the submissions were received.