Controversy surrounding the rebuilding of the World Trade Center

Rebuilding guidelines were formulated by the LMDC that required the replacement of all commercial space and the street grid before the construction of the original complex. Six plans published in July 2002 were met with mixed results. The option of reconstructing the Twin Towers was not considered. Silverstein representatives subscribed to the theory that new office buildings with more than 70 floors would create short- to medium-term vacancies while rebuilding the towers. There was also the call by a number of civic planners to restore the pre-World Trade Center street grid. Chief architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill publicly denounced the original plan and described the towers and the "superblock" as out of place, not conducive to public-space activity and lacking in aesthetics.

During the planning process newspaper polls, letters to the editor, as well as the feedback forms on the LMDC "Listening to the People" initiative and on its website suggested that there was a bloc of people who advocated restoration of the former towers, arguing it was a moral imperative and an indispensable act of counter-terrorism. After an initial competition was met with unfavorable reaction the LMDC was forced to restart the design process almost from scratch leaving in place essentially the same guidelines that had been repudiated the first time. Seven new designs were published and narrowed down to two candidates: one from Studio Daniel Libeskind and one from THINK Design which was the closest of the seven to evoke the fallen towers.