Month: March 2007

Building the new World Trade Center

As of a couple of weeks ago, I have a new job (more to come on that some other time.) One thing about my new job is from my desk I have a grandstand view of what is probably the most famous construction site in the world right now – that of the new World Trade Center.

Deutsche Bank DemolitionI can’t deny the first time I saw the view I felt a little uncomfortable. 9/11 was obviously one of the most tragic days in modern western history, and here I was looking at the site where thousands of people died in just a couple of hours. However without forgetting, New York moves on and the WTC site looks more like a construction, rather than demolition, site these days.

There is, however, one building made unusable 5 1/2 years ago that is yet to be leveled – the Deutsche Bank building. Its story is somewhat horrific, but just as I started work at my new office demolition began piece by painstaking piece.
WTC

Initial construction has started though on the Freedom Tower (the centrepiece of the new WTC) and on at least one of the other towers. It will of course take years for all of these buildings these to be completed, not least because of the controversy which still surrounds so much of the project

One part which is finished though is the new Building 7, the original Building 7 was also destroyed on 9/11. The new WTC 7 is a beautiful piece of architecture, and I hope provides many with the hope that one day in the not too distant future the WTC site will once again be a place of opportunity.

More photos are available in the WTC album on my Flickr site. I’ll be taking more photos over the coming months so check back there if this stuff interests you.

WTC 7

Intolerable

It’s already most of the way round the blogosphere by now, but I just wanted to join in the voices of condemnation against the people who have abused Kathy Sierra.

I use the word ‘abuse’ quite purposefully. It is, in my mind, criminal to threaten someone in such a way, and should not be toleratated.

I was disheartened, but unfortunately not surprised, to hear of Desi McAdam’s retelling of what one of her (male) associates said of the matter, basically ‘yeah, it’s going to happen, she’s just got to suck it up. If it was a man no-one would care.’. Did the suffragettes just ‘suck it up’ when they believed it was unjust for them not to have the right to vote?

Apart from anything else, it completely misses the value of the individual, and without outstanding individuals like Kathy Sierra as part of our careers, and lives at large, we would suffer. It’s time we appreciate them, no matter their gender, and defend their human rights whether online or not.