By Ray Bert
20+ Years of Urban Rebuilding: Lessons from the Revival of Lower Manhattan after 9/11, by Patrice Derrington and Rosemary Scanlon. New York City: Routledge, 2024; 209 pages, $144.
As amazing as it may seem, in workplaces across the United States the youngest contingent of workers – say those in their mid-20s or younger – for the most part have no meaningful memory of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. For sure, it was likely an ever-present background hum during their upbringing, but they mostly don’t remember where they were when it happened; it wasn’t a universal touch point the way it was for older generations.
For many civil engineers and those in similar industries, though, the aftermath of 9/11 was also a massive rebuilding project in lower Manhattan for more than two decades, and this means both physically and symbolically. In 20+ Years of Urban Rebuilding, two professionals with strong ties to New York and to the rebuilding tell a deeply researched and informed story of that long-term effort.
Further reading:
- Podcast: Reflections on 9/11
- From the ashes: One World Trade Center
- A remembrance: The World Trade Center towers and the engineers who designed them
- The events: A timeline of the day
- The impact: A world changed
In addition to the authors’ personal involvement in some of the redevelopment efforts, much of the material for this volume grew out of the Lower Manhattan T+15 research project, a five-part seminar/symposium held in 2016-17 at Columbia University that examined the first 15 years of rebuilding lower Manhattan after the attacks. Derrington and Scanlon were two of the three leaders of the project.
In the authors’ words, “Combining the insights of the T+15 symposium with reports and published reviews, we present the major, and sometimes hidden, challenges of rebuilding the (World Trade Center). Included and interwoven are the concerns for the lower Manhattan economy, the hurdles and highlights of the planning process, and the various visions for this important urban area put forth by the major stakeholders and citizenry.” They also note that they discuss the major challenges of rebuilding key infrastructure and transportation hubs, the development of new public aspects of the World Trade Center site (such as the memorial and museum), and whether it made sense to replace all the lost office space.
The complexity, challenges, and sheer scale of the overall project are evident throughout the book and serve as a fascinating case study for anyone engaged in related fields. The authors ask what can be learned from the dramatic transformation of the neighborhood and business district that resulted and which aspects can be applied elsewhere and which might be unique to this project and the calamitous events at its genesis.
However, as relatively dense as this book sometimes is (and needed to be) with technical, economic, architectural, and development issues, Derrington and Scanlon made an additional and important decision: the inclusion of first-person accounts, called “Reflections,” throughout the book. Through more than 30 contributions in this format from key individuals (architects, engineers, planners, and others who played parts in the rebuilding), some recalling personal anecdotes of 9/11 and others key aspects of the rebuilding, the book gains a personal touch that might otherwise have been missing. It feels appropriate, given the national tragedy that necessitated this particular redevelopment.
Though surely an academic and historical documentation of a uniquely momentous rebuilding effort, 20+ Years of Urban Rebuilding is also a reminder of the true importance of planning, redevelopment, and civil engineering. The power – real and symbolic – that our built environments, communities, and cities have to reflect what we value, aspire to, and remember is a lesson well worth learning and relearning as often as necessary.
