Ward said the four office towers - three planned by Silverstein - would be built when the battered economy, which has emptied existing towers of commercial space across the city, allows it.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes ground zero, said it's crucial to build all the planned the office space, noting that terrorists deliberately struck at the nation's financial capital.
"We committed eight years ago that we were going to rebuild bigger and better than ever. If we're not going to do that, then we're sending a terrible message," he said.
Silverstein - who leased the towers six weeks before the attacks, said the delays that he has blamed on the Port Authority have cost the project public confidence.
Putting off the office towers much longer would dishonor a commitment to respond to the attacks and "would really be a stain on New York's reputation and image," said Janno Lieber, who runs the project for Silverstein Properties.
Other local businesses fear being stuck around a construction site for years, said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group.
"Can the site be made functional and attractive without completing it?" she said.
Some other key players involved in the planning now stress deliberation over bold strokes.
Former Gov. George Pataki stressed urgency at the site in dozens of speeches since unveiling a since-delayed timetable for the Freedom Tower in 2003.
In the beginning, "there was a tremendous sense of time urgency, and personally, I would like to see that continue today to every element of the site," said Pataki, who left office in 2006.
How long ground zero takes to rebuild won't matter to future generations, he said.
"But I'd rather have it right than yesterday, and this is being done right," Pataki said.
Libeskind - who envisioned it all - watches the construction from his studio window blocks away.
What ultimately gets built - whenever that happens - "will really be the plan that I drew, at its core."
He would not, he says, have done anything differently.
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