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The History

A story of Twin Towers II by Herbert Belton and Kenneth Gardner, and sponsored by Donald Trump in May 2005

Timeline

Early 2003

In the years following 9/11, several media outlets, activists and community organizations shared plans and renderings of new twin towers and a memrial to replace the World Trade Center.

Around this time meanwhile, the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties (the owner and lease operator/developer of the original WTC respectively) joint-created a new body called the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation (LMDC). This body had private stakeholders and interest parties with their own agenda of what to do with the Ground Zero site. In the months that followed, their agenda was showly unveilled - a completely new building that would not restore the skyline with twin buildings, but rather a crystal-like complex of multiple skyscrapers lead by one building dubbed "Freedom Tower". It was initially developed by Daniel Libeskind on behalf of Silverstein. The public criticized the LDMC selection, citing its 'ugliness' and not faithfully restoring the Twin Towers. Donald Trump also gave a critical statement.

2004

Early that year, LDMC held a limited-access competition for several third party architectural firms to pitch a new Twin-Towered design to settle the criticism. MSNBC then began conducting polls on affected families and the wider New York community. About 80% of the 3400+ people surveyed voted for the Twin Towers design.

In February, Team Twin Towers, Inc., was formed, composed of activists and designers collaborating on the early design of the model. The team was initially led by television producer and co-founder of the team Randy Warner, and the design led by engineer Kenneth "Ken" Gardner and architect Herbert Belton, who was a supporting architect for the original World Trade Center's design team led by Minoru Yamasaki. Their spokesman was Jonathan Hakala, a venture capitalist who had been a tenant on the 77th floor of the original North Tower. The project design was called the "Plan of the People", and would be identical to the original Yamasaki design.

That new design would feature a steel skin built in two layers–a tube within a tube–that has heavier columns and better structural support than the original, and it would call for larger windows for comfort and improved fireproofing. It incorporates a memorial featuring two 5-story memorials that would occupy the original footprints of the Twin Towers, made of the original steel skin of the collapsed towers and replicated steel. The victims' names would be etched in granite. "It stands for resolve, it stands for strength, it stands for renewal", says engineer of the project Ken Gardner. "To see the towers return would have an inspirational impact on the population. It's a living memorial, and I think it's more powerful than pretending 9/11 never happened."

The main twin towers originally would feature a 500-foot-high mast on top of the North Tower, which would bring its total height to 1,888 feet, which at the time would have made it the tallest building in the world surpassing the 1,667-foot-high Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan and the tallest twin towers in the world surpassing the 1,483-feet-high Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[13] The two towers were planned to be 112 stories tall.

Team Twin Towers was one of several groups pressuring government and development officials to alter the reconstruction plans of the Libeskind master plan chosen by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Joanna Rose, spokeswoman for the LMDC, which is coordinating reconstruction at the site, said the organization intended to go forward with its chosen plan. Randy Warner, co-founder of Team Twin Towers said: "As long as we haven't started digging a hole in the ground, there's room for discussion."

Team Twin Towers, on February 18, 2004, unveiled their architectural model of new twin towers at a news conference at the Marriott Financial Center Hotel (now New York Marriott Downtown) near the World Trade Center site. Team Twin Towers spokesman Jonathan Hakala says the original Twin Towers "were among Earth's few 'instantly recognizable' landmarks." and "It was a magnificent structure to see going up", recalls Artie Vignapiano, who was a Port Authority landscape planner as the original World Trade Center was built.

"When I worked on the 74th floor of Tower One, I used to tell people, 'You know what I get paid for? To look outside my window at the Statue of Liberty.'" He then went on to say, 'All of the people who worked on the buildings—10 out of 10—want them back.'"

Later in February, Trump appeared on CNN show Larry King Live with Larry King.[17] During a talk radio broadcast, a caller asked whether Trump was involved or going to be involved with the "new twin towers". Though Trump at the time was not involved with the Team Twin Towers project, he became a sponsor of the project's design in the later years. Trump said the following about David Childs and Daniel Libeskind's design of One World Trade Center (dubbed the Freedom Tower):

"It's in the hands of a man named Larry Silverstein, who's a friend of mine, who's a great developer in New York and a really good guy. And I hate the design, and I don't think Larry likes the design. It was foisted upon him. It's a 50-story building that looks like it's 120 stories. It's a skeleton. And that's the last thing we need in New York is a skeleton of – representing the World Trade Center. I think that it is not an appropriate design. I don't like it. But Larry's a good developer. He'll get it built, I think. And it's tough. You know, it depends on the market"

2005-2007

In 2005, publicity for the project increased, with Trump officially supporting and sponsoring the project. Support for the project increased due to the criticism of the Childs-Libeskind design and accusations from 2002 revived against former New York Governor George Pataki, accused of cronyism for supposedly using his influence to get the winning architect's design picked as a personal favor for his friend and campaign contributor, Ron Lauder. On May 17th 2005, Trump appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss the proposed Childs-Libeskind Freedom Tower design. While Matthews asks Trump about whether an empty site is better than the proposed design, he quickly responds, criticizing Libeskind, "It was designed by an egghead architect who really doesn't have a lot of experience of designing something like this. And it's just a terrible design." Trump later goes on to say that he doesn't "even blame the architect." Trump, who in later month sponsored the project, said that there is "not much of a role I can take." in response to a question by Matthews. "What I want to see built is the World Trade Center stronger and maybe a story taller. And that's what everybody wants."

While the project was gaining publicity due to Donald Trump's sponsorship of it, former Borough president of The Bronx, Fernando Ferrer, supported the plan to build new twin towers, saying that it is "very interesting and it should be considered." adding that the new signature building shouldn't look "cowardly." Before the statement, Ferrer issued a rebuilding plan that called to spread out the 10 million square feet of office space around the five boroughs so it "decentralized." Ferrer spokeswoman Jen Bluestein said that "The reason, he said then, was to create back-office space to help the boroughs outside Manhattan. He also didn't want to give the terrorists another target." she continued to explain, "Fernando Ferrer has always believed that the mayor's responsibility was to both rebuild critical mass at Ground Zero and, using existing hubs, expand office space throughout the five boroughs. Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg has managed to do neither".

Greg Manning, who worked in the original World Trade Center along with his wife Lauren, wrote an article in The New York Times supporting the Twin Towers II project. Greg worked for Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the South Tower and Lauren was a partner for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North Tower. Manning was late, so he was not in his office when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the building, destroying the Euro Brokers offices. His wife Lauren was burnt by the fireball that blew out the lobby of the North Tower after American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building. Greg said the following about the project:

"When my wife and I visit or pass by the site today, we may gape at the emptiness but our gaze is drawn upward. We imagine things as they were, the dead and the injured still living and working above. Many bereft families view the footprints as the sacred repose of their loved ones, yet with the greatest tenderness and love for those lost and injured, we suggest that to return to the sacred space, we need to return to the sky."

Trump, on May 18, 2005, held a press conference at his residence on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, to address the proposed Twin Towers II design. Along with him was engineer Ken Gardner and architect Herbert Belton, Trump presented the Team Twin Towers designed twin-towered complex model. The Freedom Tower plan, according to Trump, "looks like a junkyard, a series of broken-down angles that don't match each other. And we have to live with this for hundreds of years?" Though Trump was supporting the proposed twin-towered project, he was leaving the decision up to Larry Silverstein, whose company Silverstein Properties leased-owned the site. "I only have the power of persuasion", Trump said.

At the press conference, he read from a letter sent to him by Libeskind. Trump quoted Libeskind as saying the shape of the tower was "the product of David Childs", while he wanted a more slender, classical tower set back farther from the street. Libeskind added in a statement Wednesday: "The site plan is not just about commercial buildings. The memorial is its crucial centerpiece. It is there for a reason." Trump, finishing his speech, said that "If we rebuild the World Trade Center in the form of a skeleton, the terrorists win." and that if tenants could not be found for the project, to build a memorial park instead.

A final design for the "Freedom Tower" was formally unveiled by LMDC on June 28, 2005. The design originally included plans to clad the base in glass prisms in order to address criticism that the building might have looked uninviting and resembled a "concrete bunker". Construction of the Freedom Tower was pushed forward (mainly from Silverstein Properties) and began in April 2006, which jeopardized the Twin Towers II project from being built on the site.

2008 - 2022

By 2008, when construction of the Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) slowed down, there were talks about stopping construction and then restaring Gardner's proposal. Sadly, Herbert Belton died in 2006. Gardner - before stepping away into retirement - gave one last public announcement: ""Seeing them go up could be as powerful as seeing them go down".

Twin Towers II was shelved and almost forgotten in the years since the new 1 WTC was opened in 2014, and along with the other skyscrapers at the redeveloped site.

The Twin Towers Alliance gained more momentum in the 2010s, and achieved more than 9,000 signatures as of July 2025.

Meanwhile, British engineer and entrepeneur Raphael Chryslar - who admires the Twin Towers from a very early age, and has relatives in (and frequently spent time in) the United States, began postulating on a successor that would aim to revive Herbert Belton's idea. He began making hobby build models of new modern Twin Towers in his favorite city of Chicago, in the video game Minecraft. His mind floated and lingered on this concept quietly for many years until early 2022 when he first attended university.

2023 - Present

By early 2023, Raphael Chryslar was well into his first year of studies (on a master's degree in aerospace). Chryslar - a Christian - has had vivid dreams on several nights and deep thoughts during the day. He affirms it was God communicating to him telepathically to pursue the project into reality and 'downloading ideas into his mind'.

Chryslar started doing research in his spare time on how major civil engineering projects were originally conceived and brought into real life, and searched through online archives to obtain digital copies of all the original blueprints for the World Trade Center. With that revelation, and combined with Chryslar's academic success and strong knowledge in a varirty of STEM topics, It was at that moment when he vowed to put down on paper his vision of a new Twin Towers with a new purpose: a hub for science and technology.

To this day, Chryslar is dedicating his life to making this dream into reality, no matter how long it takes, and in parallel with his smaller side projects and ambitions. His trust and faith that "through Christ - anything is possible, no matter how skeptical people can be" is rightfully affirmed.

References

Mainly archived links to ensure longevity as some sources are no longer online