World Trade Center Church Design Unveiled

Three years after the controversy over the proposed Park 51 Islamic community center blocks away from the World Trade Center site, religion is entering the picture again in Lower Manhattan, now in the form of Santiago Calatrava's just released renderings for the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001, when the south tower of WTC fell. Whereas the church was housed in a 19th-century tavern, Calatrava's design is a gleaming, Byzantine design that would proudly overlook the WTC Memorial from a podium formed by the bulkhead over the entrance ramps to the below-grade vehicle security center for the WTC site. The church will be Calatrava's second contribution to the area's rebuilding, following the PATH Transportation Hub, which is currently under construction and finally poking above grade. The renderings come the same week as the opening of the PATH's West Concourse, which gives a taste for now even more to come from Calatrava at ground zero.