If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost.

That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

— Henry David Thoreau

We expect this presentation to be finalized by the end of June.

Updated on June 15, 2026

The world needs the Twin Towers’ return to the World Trade Center more than we know. That statement will seem naive and far-fetched to many who read it, but we trust that the following presentation supports the belief that a better World Trade Center is not only possible, but essential to a better world.

The comprehensive plan on the next page can only be appreciated by first reading the little-known account of what actually produced the current development. Many articles and books have been written on the history of rebuilding the World Trade Center. And very few of us will ever read them. But everyone should know what happened at Ground Zero in the years after 9/11, because it is powerfully broadcasting who we are to the world, whether we know it or not.

The World Trade Center is a template of how to make the public the low man on a totem pole supposedly dedicated to Democracy. Exposing that playbook and showing how it is still possible to make the World Trade Center shining proof of the quintessential American Spirit is what drives this proposal.

This examination of little-known aspects of the rebuilding process proves how effectively “public relations” can short-circuit our democracy. If we do not know what drives decisions made in our name by our public servants in our country spending our money, how can we claim that it is ours? And where is that more defining than at the World Trade Center?

Chief Architect of the World Trade Center Minoru Yamasaki showed the world how successful buildings that start as ambitious castles in the air can be. In a 1963 interview in TIME Magazine, he famously said: “I feel this way about it…”

World trade means world peace and consequently the World Trade Center buildings in New York… had a bigger purpose than just to provide room for tenants. The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man’s dedication to world peace … beyond the compelling need to make this a monument to world peace, the World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.

Sadly, those in charge of rebuilding the Trade Center put just providing room for tenants ahead of all else. That is how the Memorial became part of a “campus”. Officials cared too much about providing an attractive, vaguely patriotic vista for the prospective tenants they needed to attract back to the site to risk anything but paying lip service to the unpredictable democratic process. So they faked it with hollow words and displays.

As Architecture critic Paul Goldberger, who later received a Pulitzer Prize for his report on the early rebuilding protocols wrote in his 7/29/2002 New Yorker column “Up From Zero”:

Governor Pataki, who, along with Governor James Mcreevey, of New Jersey, controls the Port Authority, is fond of using words like “hallowed ground” when he talks about the site. But the people who report to him talk about “obligations to leaseholders” and “obligations to bondholders”.

In fact, if there was ever a piece of land that should be treated as part of the public domain, it is this one… the Governor should be pressing the Port Authority to operate with a greater sense of civic responsibility.

There is ample proof that business-as-usual crowded out democratic principles when the plans were made to rebuild Ground Zero. It was the antithesis of the “If you build it, they will come,” philosophy. The World Trade Center that we see today demonstrates how Corporate priorities and political Special Interests can dominate the media, and through selectively airing information, manipulate public opinion — in every way.

Americans and our friends around the world who also suffered needed to be inspired and reassured that we could stand up to the implacable terrorists bent on destroying Western Civilization.

Until we correct the flaws in what is standing on the World Trade Center’s hallowed ground, it will always be where Democracy in America was subverted. That will be substantiated and documented many times over on the pages ahead. Fortunately, by building on what is already there on the site, it can still live up to its lofty purpose.

“People Want Their Towers Back” was demonstrably true. Of course, that did not mean all people. There was a lot of fear of another attack in 2002 — as well as some people who never liked the Twins. But the beauty of democracy is that it allows a collective voice to be heard and respected above all — to fairly decide every matter, large or small.

At the World Trade Center, that voice was deliberately muffled and ignored. This New York Post cover deserved national attention. The whole country and the Free World were attacked on 9/11. But ten months later, when a report based on a significant sampling found that half of New York wanted the Towers rebuilt, the story was buried — even in New York.

That was news everyone deserved to know and discuss. Especially since the other half was splintered into preferences with low single-digit support. Ghosting the report within a week of officials “Listening to the City” extravaganza at the Javits Center was proof that the New York Times no longer adhered to its founder’s pledge to deliver “all the news”…

“impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved; to make the columns of THE NEW-YORK TIMES a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”

If only the New York Times had been true to that promise — even if nothing else had changed — the people would have been actively engaged in the planning process and the site would look nothing like it does today.

But when the Times “curated” WTC news — shutting out the voices that were not in agreement with the powerful political and cultural special interests — the national and international media followed suit. And the fiction that the current WTC is the result of the democratic process spread around the world.

The public paid to first purchase the land through eminent domain. American taxpayers funded the rebuilding. And the price each victim paid is beyond knowing. But, when some 9/11 Families vehemently disagreed with the official plan, their voices were marginalized and their concerns were misrepresented.

Efforts to discredit those 9/11 families who objected to the corporate priorities of the project while overrepresenting the opinions of family members who agreed with it was an insult to every American.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shutdown efforts to poll every next-of-kin — as if some victims could possibly matter more than others — because he must have known they would reject the official plans.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Mayor Bloomberg, and New York Governor George Pataki, had tremendous legitimate concerns and responsibilities to consider. But nothing mattered more than honoring the will of the people. Knowing that, they nevertheless conspired to undermine the public’s influence. And a full reckoning is overdue.

The compromise at Ground Zero left us with a skyline that echoes the butchered site when the North Tower stood alone for half an hour before it also collapsed. It is focused on a sanitized plaza where every vestige and relic of the attacks was forced indoors or below ground level.

The inspiring Sphere that survived hell-on-earth sits in exile across the street. And, many victims’ families are deeply distressed that the unidentified remains are locked in the museum instead of in the center of a noble, above-ground vault.

Once people realize that the current WTC “campus” is selling America short, they are likely to cross every partisan divide (as everyone did after 9/11) to insist on making the WTC site a fitting tribute to Democracy. At the site where thousands of Americans were slaughtered simply for being Americans, what could matter more?

Finally, no one would dare to say that the Lower Manhattan skyline comes anywhere close to the dramatic, stunning effect of the incomparable Twin Towers — because that is so obviously not true. We think that everyone who reviews the following plan will see how much more awe-inspiring, respectful, and noble every aspect of the World Trade Center will be when the Twin Towers are finally back where they belong.

Shortly after we launched the Twin Towers Alliance in March of 2006, we spent a day visiting fire stations and police precincts with a packet of information.

At the last stop of the day, a firehouse on the East Side of Manhattan, we told the fireman who answered the door that we were trying to raise awareness of the public’s broad support for rebuilding the Twin Towers.

His reply has fueled this twenty-year-long mission: “There is nothing the guys upstairs would love more…”