Charles Zucker, Director of Planning, co-chairs a team of planners and architects to develop a Global Office Center strategy as one of three scenarios for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan following the events of September 11th. Convened by the Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, three teams were charged with investigating the economic and physical implications of considering the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site within the overall context of Lower Manhattan and the region.

The four-day planning workshop, convened by the Regional Plan Association (RPA), was designed to address economic, urban design and planning issues for Lower Manhattan (south of Houston between the Hudson and East Rivers), and implications for the World Trade Center (WTC) site and the region. The workshop took place from Friday evening, December 13 through Tuesday evening, December 17th, with a presentation of the results on Wednesday morning, December 18.

The Regional Plan Association convened the workshop because it believes that it is impossible to understand the future of Lower Manhattan and the WTC site outside of the context of the region--that the Lower Manhattan context itself must be part of the design exercise for the WTC and should be the subject of public discussion. The workshop was also designed to complement the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) design effort, which was focused primarily on the architecture and urban design of the 16-acre WTC site based on a preferred program dominated by new Class A office space. By putting the WTC site in its larger context, the Civic Alliance workshop wishes to create a physical and policy-based planning framework within which the LMDC designs can be evaluated.

With the intention of refocusing the ongoing debate away from the specific architecture of the WTC site to the policy decisions that will inform the future of all of Lower Manhattan, the Regional Plan Association charged the teams with modeling, in economic and physical terms, three potential futures for Lower Manhattan and to address the policy decisions associated with each.

The three futures include:

• A Global Office Center that emphasizes a rejuvenated office economy
• A Creative Hub that emphasizes the accelerated diversification of Lower Manhattan's economy
• A Residential Community that emphasizes the rapid expansion of Lower Manhattan's residential population.

All three of the scenarios have several assumptions in common that reflect the principles, findings and recommendations described in the Civic Alliance Planning Framework to Rebuild Downtown New York.
They all assume that:

• Strategies for Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site need to be developed in concert with strategies for New York City and the metropolitan region.
• A mixed-use future for Lower Manhattan.
• Market forces will be as important as policy decisions in shaping the future, and that strategies need be flexible enough to respond to changing conditions and needs.
• The memorial design process needs to be integrated into the planning for Lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center site.
• Social, economic and environmental justice goals need to be incorporated into the program alternatives that accompany each scenario.
• Sustainable development principles are essential and will make these alternatives more effective in meeting public goals.

For more information on the Civic Alliance Workshop visit the Regional Plan Association web site: www.rpa.org.