Model of WTC lives on
Source: USA Today Friday, September 12th, 2003
Trade Center lives on, in exhibit
Everyone knows there's nothing much left of the World Trade Center, not even the architect's model destroyed in the collapse of the twin towers. But there's one model left to remind the world of what was lost.
That model, built by architect Minoru Yamasaki to present to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1971, will be on display Sept. 25 through Nov. 30 at the Octagon Museum in Washington D.C., headquarters for the American Insitute of Architects, which owns the model.
Recently restored, the model is hand made of wood, plaster, plastic and paper. It demonstrates the immense size and mass of the buildings: 8 feet by 10 feet at the base, with the towers rising just over 7 feet. When it was finished, it was so tall that ceiling tiles in Yamasaki's office in Birmingham, Mich., had to be removed.
Over the years of designing the World Trade Center, Yamasaki's firm made multiple models of different proposals before finally settling on the twin towers.
Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, says the Octagon exhibit aims to raise awareness of the need to preserve such architectural models, drawings and photos of historic structures -- in case they're lost forever.
