New WTC plan is taller than twin towers

The winning plan, shown in an architect's model, includes a 1,776-foot spire. Story Tools RELATED New York remembers 1993 WTC victims  New York looks to heal skyline  • Interactive: The winning plan  • Gallery: History of skyscrapers  • Interactive: Tallest buildings  • Special Report: Your proposals  • LMDC  PLAN ELEMENTS 1,776 foot (541m) spire with gardens above the 70th floor Leaves part of the World Trade Center foundation exposed as part of memorial 7.5 million square feet of office space DANIEL LIBESKIND Born in Poland in 1946, the son of two Holocaust survivors Came to the U.S. when he was 13; first sight of America was the Statue of Liberty Became a U.S. citizen in 1965 Studied music before taking up architecture Signature design is the Jewish Museum in Berlin

NEW YORK (AP) -- A complex of angular buildings and a 1,776-foot spire designed by architect Daniel Libeskind was chosen as the plan for the World Trade Center site on Wednesday, The Associated Press has learned.

Libeskind's design beat the THINK team's "World Cultural Center" plan, which envisioned two 1,665-foot latticework towers straddling the footprints of the original towers.

The new building is planned to be taller than the trade center towers, which briefly stood as the world's tallest at 1,350 feet. Libeskind's tower also would surpass Malaysia's 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world.

The choice was made by a committee with representatives of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the governor and the mayor. The committee met briefly on Wednesday afternoon and decided on the plan that was favored by Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to a source close to the process.

LMDC Chairman John Whitehead telephoned Libeskind with the news, the source said, telling the architect that his "vision has brought hope and inspiration to a city still recovering from a terrible tragedy."

Libeskind told the chairman that being selected is "a life-changing experience," the source said.

Nine proposals for redeveloping the trade center site, where nearly 2,800 people died September 11, 2001, were unveiled December 18. The design competition was launched after an initial set of plans, released in July, was derided as boring and overstuffed with office space.

Redevelopment officials were scheduled to announce the decision publicly Thursday.

After the two plans were chosen as finalists earlier this month, both teams of architects were asked to revise their designs to make them more easily realized.

Libeskind, whose original design called for a memorial at the trade center foundation 70-feet below ground, reportedly changed that to 30 feet, allowing for infrastructure and transportation underneath.

The LMDC was created by Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani after September 11 to oversee the rebuilding of the trade center site and downtown Manhattan. The Port Authority owns the site.

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