The New Transportation Hub in Groud Zero 'Oculus'

They say that the bird  Fenix has been reborn from fire...9/11 Groud Zero seems like to be like that metamorphosis.  The same transformation we see in the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub.The interior is as much of a staggering eyeful as the exterior. The Oculus, as the main space is named, is a cathedral-sized cavern of bone-white ribs streaking up from a marble floor to a 350-foot-long skylight slit.The all-white hall blooms with light even though it’s well below street level.
There was a moment not long after 9/11 when New Yorkers were deeply depressed about the infighting and the muddled design process stalling development at Ground Zero.Back then, Mr. Calatrava’s design seemed to promise both image and meaning. And people enthusiastically embraced it. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had only one word for it: “Wow.” And the landmarks commissioner at the time spoke of pre-emptively designating the scheme.
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, famous for his swooping sculptural bridges and railway stations as well as the movable roof of the 2004 Athens Olympic Stadium, the Hub has lately been plagued by controversy: about its almost $4 billion cost (the original budget was $2.2 billion); about construction delays (it was supposed to open in 2009); about a contractor’s indictment for fraud. Additionally, insiders complain that the 22,000 tons of steel used were as much for decoration as for structural support.

Restraint is not usually Mr. Calatrava’s style. But applied to the whole Hub, it would have made for a stronger, more lasting statement about New York’s resilience than the inflated spectacle offered now, a constant reminder of a time when all we wanted was something off the charts.

Jr.Trader: V.Mitov