On September 11, 2001, the world froze. For several hours, we could not take our eyes off the chilling images broadcast live by television networks around the globe. the famous Twin Towers, an icon of the city, disintegrated on the screen after the impact of two planes piloted by terrorists.
Hardly anyone in their twenties will have been able to forget those events or what he was doing at that tragic moment. In New York, that memory has a different echo. Thousands of New Yorkers did not witness the catastrophe on television, but rather experienced it first hand. Not only the 2,977 fatalities and their families , but also citizens who worked or lived in Lower Manhattan and they were evicted, not to return until many months later.
St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
The memory is too painful for many New Yorkers who have not wanted to set foot, yet, the world trade center memorial and that they avoid, at all costs, the multiple specials that most chains broadcast these days.
Nevertheless, 9/11 is also a symbol of survival. New York demonstrated there his capacity for compassion and altruism, qualities that we have seen emerge at times of greatest crisis in the city, such as during the impact of the devastating Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or the recent battle against the coronavirus.
The World Trade Center synthesizes that terrible past and a hopeful future. Its transformation, in these two decades, has been slow and laborious but, with a firm step, it is approaching its culmination.
One of those goals arrives with a little delay. The monumental church designed by the Valencian Santiago Calatrava it is going to skip its inauguration scheduled for September 11. The truth is that this new work by the architect, thus adding his second project in the same complex after the macro station known as Oculus, has been plagued by financial setbacks that had the works paralyzed for almost two years. The pandemic didn't help at all. So the new date for the official premiere of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church moves to April 2022.
The 9/11 Memorial, where the water wells rest in the same space and with the same dimensions as the Twin Towers
The cranes continue to stand out at the World Trade Center for the construction of the new performing arts center called The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center or The Perelman for friends (although there are those who prefer to call it by its acronym, PAC). the new building, in the form of a luminous cube, completed the structural works this summer and now begins a long process to install three large multi-purpose and flexible stages that will accommodate functions for 100 or 1,200 spectators, depending on which configuration is chosen from its 11 options. No specific date yet The Perelman will open its doors in 2023.
Pending still under construction Two towers which will be added to the four already completed and occupied. All with their corresponding number. The 2 World Trade Center, located in the northeast corner of the complex and next to the Oculus, and the 5 World Trade Center, south of the memorial, they are waiting to receive the green light (that is, money) to fly through the clouds of New York. both buildings only has the underground floors completed, up to the level of the asphalt, and everything indicates that tower 2 has more numbers to start climbing after recovering, with some modifications, the original design of star architect Norman Foster.
As every year, the 9/11 Memorial, where the water wells rest in the same space and with the same dimensions that the Twin Towers occupied, it becomes the center of a commemoration reserved for relatives of the victims.
In the Tribute in Light, two light bulbs tear up the New York night, filling the void left by the Twin Towers
The ceremony begins at 8:46 in the morning with a minute of silence. At that time, plane 77 hit the North Tower. It is followed by other moments of remembrance coinciding with the collapse of skyscrapers and the attacks on the Pentagon and the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
In addition, the night of September 11 will not miss the call tribute in light, when two light bulbs tear the night of New York filling the void left by the Twin Towers.
The 20th anniversary will be even more special because, the night before, the church designed by Calatrava will join the commemoration, although it is not quite finished. The architect designed white marble panels lit from below that They will make the temple glow in the dark. On the night of September 10, after holding the first religious service, St. Nicholas will be lit once to remember all the lives lost in the attacks. This will be the emotional memory of events that changed New York forever.
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