Proposal for the Manhattan Skyline, World Trade Center    1973 and 1976

1973 and 1976

The year I moved to New York City, the World Trade Center was nearing completion. It was the tallest building in the world. I thought of the tower’s facades as huge blank canvases.
I am interested in simple solutions that make a big impact so I proposed the redesign of the surfaces of the towers using only the light switches, the window shades and the labor of the cleaning staff. Each evening the cleaning person consults a calendar positioned at each window of the building to determine if a light is to be left on or a window shade adjusted. ON/OFF - the binary system in operation. The illusion is that World Trade Center’s facade is sliced, dissected, rearranged, or transformed into other facades. The Empire State Building or Notre Dame can be displaced to lower Manhattan.