Project Rebirth

Project Rebirth is an online chronicle of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Six months after the fall of the World Trade Center Towers, a documentary filmmaker began filming time-lapse movies of the site from 35-millimeter cameras placed atop buildings around the site. There are now six of them, each shooting one frame every five minutes. When they have been filming for ten years, the length of the project, the resulting images will be compiled into a 20-minute film.As immediate and compelling as a physical visit, this project gives people the opportunity to observe and share in the progress of the reconstruction.

The project is called Project Rebirth, and the documentary filmmaker behind it is Jim Whitaker, who is also the president of Imagine Entertainment, the film production company started by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. In September, Project Rebirth launched a web site, www.projectrebirth.org, which is its own project in several ways. In addition to information about the film, the site provides an interactive timeline, interviews with important figures in the rebuilding process, and information about the architecture, urban planning, and engineering that is going into the rebuilding.


The responsibility for the redevelopment has become divided in the aftermath of Libeskind’s selection, and he is currently working with a team of architects, planners, and developers, including Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and Larry Silverstein, the site’s leaseholder.

Its main components include:
-The Freedom Tower, located at the northwest corner of the site, slated to be completed in 2009;
-The Memorial , occupying 4.7 acres in the southwest quadrant, on the footprint of the fomer towers;
-The Transit Hub, at the northeast corner with its entrance at the intersection of Church and Vesey Streets, to replace the temporary PATH station by 2020;
-7 World Trade Center, now rising to 52 stories on the north side of Vesey Street and scheduled to be the first completed building, opening in 2005; and
-Three additional office towers on the east side of the site, separated from the Memorial and Freedom Tower by Fulton and Greenwich Streets.

Link for a view of the selected design for ground zero:
http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/wtc_site/