Up From Zero should appeal to anyone interested in architecture, urban planning, real estate, politics, and to those who desire a lucid and highly readable account of what has happened at Ground Zero in the few years following 9/11.

Paul Goldberger chronicles a number of events, from the widely reported-on World Trade Center master plan competition, called the Innovative Design Study, to numerous community forums and private meetings, and the players that are significant to the eventual outcome of the site. It speaks to Goldberger's skill as a reporter and writer that he is able to organize all of his information into a seamless narrative, while recognizing the tenuous nature of the rebuilding process. The result is a cohesive, mostly unbiased account, and a true page-turner.

The book has several pages of b&w illustrations, but including more of the designs themselves would have been helpful. If you want a better sense of the types of designs submitted in conjunction with the Innovative Design Study, I highly recommend the book Imagining Ground Zero (2004) by Suzanne Stephens. Imagining Ground Zero: The Official and Unofficial Proposals for the World Trade Center Site (Architectural Record Book) Here you see why Daniel Libeskind's winning design and runner-up THINK's received such acclaim, while others were deemed too progressive or traditional.

Urban planning on the scale and in the context of Ground Zero has never been untaken before, which Goldberger makes a point of in the preface. Major building projects take years, some more than a decade, to complete. With the intense pressure to build on the former World Trade Center site, it is impressive to consider that the years this book covers (mostly 2001-2004; the paperback has been updated to include events in 2005) may likely turn out to be but a prelude to the whole of the design process.

Libeskind may have won the master plan competition, but by the end of the book, his bold design had been subject to significant modification. Libeskind, depicted as maverick and avant-garde, would continue to see his role diminish and his scheme compromised by the competing visions that many stakeholders have in the site and some of the economic and political realities of building in such a highly visible place. The early life of Libeskind's design alone should serve to illustrate how much of Goldberger's great book is prefatory.

As expected, Goldberger cannot end his account satisfactorily insofar as the process has not been played out fully, and it may be years before it is. It is then no surprise that the epilogue is meandering, as the author tries, for the sake of his readers, to impose some kind of conclusion to the events and offer a reasonable explanation as to why something that should be guided by collaboration is instead being dictated by commerce. In the end, it is the visionaries, whether they are architects like Libeskind or planners, and the citizens of New York City who walk away as losers.

But nor does anyone emerge as a winner. Certainly not Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center, who is painted as a greedy developer exerting considerable influence on the design process. His triumph may turn out to be 7 World Trade Center, his building adjacent to Ground Zero that was also destroyed on 9/11. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, it was completed a few months ago and has been well-received.

Golderberger's book reveals how democracy, bureaucracy, and powerful constituencies work in continuum at Ground Zero. And slowly but surely a picture of how it will look is emerging.

What's so great about this book?

Is it because the book carefully analyzes
pros and cons on the history of the area?

Is it because the book brings alive the political
games of Port Authority and LMDC?

Is it because the book broadcasts the competition
of world-class architects?

Is it because the book records the behind scenes
of super architects' dirty cat fight?

Is it because the eye of the book is not only from
top-down, but also bottom-up?

Is it because the book tells what the role of developer is in NY?


Well, the book surely answers all of above-mentioned questions. But the real drama of the book is in what the New Yorkers did together to make this site memorable and meaningful (both symbolically and practically); a strong testimony to the victorious civic life against the destructive terrorists attacks.

Paul Goldberger bites that drama with such tenacity and rigor that it's really difficult to put down the book once in hands. The book actually mentions that NY had to wait several months before speaking of rebuilding because nobody dared to speak when the scars of terrorism was just around the corner. What a tragic yet promising story!

The heart of the matter is that in the turmoil of rebuilding energy arises a revelation how a great contemporary city -such as New York- claims it's identity. It's a city of ideas. It's a city of debates. It's a city of interactions, and it's a city of generating hope from the deepest despair of human affairs. "It's a city of Victors, not Victims"

I would like to believe that Goldberger, as a New Yorker, simply could not resist speaking of what he had witnessed. The book is mind bothering, yet, heart beating read.