Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York

by Paul Goldberger

In Up from Zero, Paul Goldberger, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the inside story of the quest to rebuild one of the most important symbolic sites in the world, the sixteen acres where the towers of the former World Trade Center stood. A story of power, politics, architecture, community, and culture, Up from Zero takes us inside the controversial struggle to create and build one of the most challenging urban-design projects in history.

What should replace the fallen towers? Who had the courage and vision to rise to the task of rebuilding? Who had the right, finally, to decide? The struggle began soon after September 11, 2001, as titanic egos took sides, made demands, and jockeyed for power. Lawyers, developers, grieving families, local residents, politicians, artists, and architects all had fierce needs, radically different ideas, strong emotions, and boundless determination. How could conflicting interests be resolved? After hundreds of hours of often rancorous meetings, the first sets of plans were finally revealed in the summer of 2002–and the results were staggeringly disappointing.

Yet, as Goldberger shows, the rebuilding process recovered and began to flourish. Rather than degenerating into turf wars, it evolved in ways that no one could have predicted. From the decision to reintegrate the site into the dense fabric of lower Manhattan, to the choice of Daniel Libeskind as master planner, to the appointment of a memorial jury, the process has been marked by moments of bold vision, effective community activism, and personal instinct, punctuating the often contentious politics of public participation.
Up from Zero takes in the full sweep of this tremendous effort. Goldberger presents a drama of creative minds at work, solving seemingly insurmountable clashes of taste, interests, and ideas. With unique access to the players and the process, and with a sophisticated understanding of architecture and its impact on people and on the social and cultural life of a city, Paul Goldberger here chronicles the courage, the sacrifices, and the burning passions at the heart of one of the greatest efforts of urban revitalization in modern times.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Paul Goldberger, who the Huffington Post has called “the leading figure in architecture criticism,” is now a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair. From 1997 through 2011 he served as the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where he wrote the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of the Parsons school of design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.

He is the author of several books, most recently Why Architecture Matters, published in 2009 by Yale University Press; Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture, a collection of his architecture essays published in 2009 by Monacelli Press, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, published in 2010 by Taschen. He is now at work on a full-length biography of the architect Frank Gehry, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf. In 2008 Monacelli published Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, which he produced in association with the photographer Jake Rajs. Paul Goldberger’s chronicle of the process of rebuilding Ground Zero, entitled UP FROM ZERO: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York, which was published by Random House in the fall of 2004, and brought out in a new, updated paperback edition in 2005, was named one of The New York Times Notable Books for 2004. Paul Goldberger has also written The City Observed: New York, The Skyscraper, On the Rise: Architecture and Design in a Post-Modern Age, Above New York, and The World Trade Center Remembered.

He lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities, and he has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to The New School. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President’s Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called “the nation’s most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design.” In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York. In 1993, he was named a Literary Lion, the New York Public Library’s tribute to distinguished writers. In 2007, he was presented with the Ed Bacon Foundation’s Award for Professional Excellence, named in honor of Philadelphia’s legendary planner, and in 2009 he received the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award from the Urban Communication Foundation.

He has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Pratt Institute, the University of Miami, Kenyon College, the College of Creative Studies and the New York School of Interior Design for his work as a critic and cultural commentator on design. He appears frequently on film and television to discuss art, architecture, and cities, and recently served as host of a PBS program on the architect Benjamin Latrobe. He has also served as a special consultant and advisor on architecture and planning matters to several major cultural and educational institutions, including the Morgan Library in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the New York Public Library, the Glenstone Foundation and Cornell and Harvard universities. He serves as special advisor to the jury for the Richard A. Driehaus Prize, a $200,000 prize awarded annually for traditional architecture and urbanism. He is a graduate of Yale Universi

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book after visiting the 9/11 Memorial. I thought that the memorial was beautifully done so I wanted to read about the events and decisions that led to it. I also thought there may be some intrigue elements considering how many people wanted a say in this (nyc residents, politicians, the families etc.)

The book was interesting but in my opinion not very well written. It dragged on and went into detail on the things I didn't care about and glazed over the areas where I wanted to learn more. I was also disappointed by the lack of pictures of other designs submitted. That really could have added some context to the book and helped me visualize why certain decisions were made. Oh well!!

[Mark Bunch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to study the urban redevelopment process. Glad I did. I could understand all the players and details involved. A good book for the urban studies shelves.

[MC]

Heard him speak at work - really interesting

[Raul · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in City Planning, this book is a must. Paul Goldberger gives us a well-informed and intelligent account of how various institutional, personal, and economic forces present in post-9/11/01 New York City came together over a 10-year period to produce the redevelopment of "Ground Zero" as we know it today. He does a great job at detailing all the salient characteristics of the project, and traces their origin and development in the push and pull of the various forces at work. Paul can do this because he is well versed in the history of the city, its social and political character and institutions, the nature of the city's real estate profession, and at the same time also knows the design and planning professions, and the concepts and ideas that have guided these over time, particularly as they apply to New York City. He also must have had the inside ear of many individuals in and out of government that were close to the action, because at various junctures he provides us with vignettes that could only have been known by the parties at the table. And clearly he had access to a lot of newspapers, because the development of Ground Zero is probably one of the most publicized architectural "events" in recent history. One wonders how he manages to describe the relative merits of the various proposals that surfaced in all these "competitions" (for the Master Plan, for the Memorial, for the Transit Hub...) without offending their creators, yet, if his evaluations seem fair and balanced to the reader, it because his evaluations are almost always based on solid, clearly-stated principles and historical facts. His most important thesis is the one that applies to the least appealing characteristic of the Ground Zero Development: its over-preponderance of office buildings on these 116 acres, at the expense of other possible uses, particularly residential. More mixed uses would have made for a much livelier and "human" environment. This, he shows us, is readily traced to the Port Authority's relentless insistence that the program for the site be patterned after the original World Trade Center with its 10 million sq. ft of office space, plus the previous retail commercial space, and NO residential, all this because the Port Authority was determined to receive all the rent payments it had negotiated for the leases of World Trade Center and not one penny less. As Goldberger notes, only New York's Governor Pataki could have changed that equation, but Pataki did not want to risk any animosity that would disturb his election prospects, and only cared for Ground Zero as a background for his self aggrandizement. Lacking his support, no one, not even Bloomberg, managed to change the equation. This is too bad because, no matter how much or how little you like what you find there today, it is hard to dispute the fact that it would have been so much better with more intermixing of other uses, including residential. Perhaps the future will reverse that. NOTE: I wish the book had a lot more pictures - the ones in the paperback edition are really unsatisfactory.

[Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard this author interviewed on NPR in relation to ground zero. I can't remember anything about the interview, but the topic sounded interesting. Anyway, the title says is all ... the book is about the process of rebuilding on the site of the fallen twin towers. I was ready for lots of intrigue, and there was, but the author introduced so many characters that it was hard to follow. This was a bit disappointing since so many of the characters seemed irrelevant to the story. I got a copy of the book from the library and was disappointed to see that it was published in 2004, already five years out of date. Nonetheless, it was an interesting look at how decisions were made in relation to the site. Most interesting (or depressing) was the description of all the egos involved, from politicians to architects to commercial developers. All in all, a worthwhile read, but now I need to go internet surfing to see what's happened since the book was published.