The New Criterion

The New Criterion has had much to say over the years, both implicitly and explicitly, about what and what not to build at Ground Zero. You can read Roger Kimball’s 2002 “Architecture and ideology,” Michael J. Lewis’s 2003 “All sail, no anchor: architecture after modernism,” Francis Morrone’s 2005 “Starting from zero,” and Lewis’s 2005 “The fiasco at Ground Zero”—that last title more or less summing up our conclusion on the matter. The best idea I’ve heard lately didn’t appear in our pages, alas, but I think we can get behind it: Bring in

Philippe de Montebello, the retiring director of the Metropolitan Museum. His legacy is already secure, so he has nothing to prove. He has construction experience, having eked improbable amounts of exhibition acreage out of the Met’s tight envelope. He showed diplomatic finesse in negotiating with Italian authorities over the return of illegally exported artworks. He has a finely honed aesthetic sensibility (and once even mounted an exhibit of Calatrava’s designs). Most important, he has spent decades acting on the belief that pandering to the public is a terrible way to serve it. Appointing him knight of ground zero would signal that this is a civic enterprise, one that can still be redeemed.

Who said it? A thoroughly fed-up New York Magazine, and you can read the whole piece here. As the first man to comment says, “He would be doing us all a huge mitzvah if he accepted such a position. Having Ground Zero developed properly is essential in our fight against terrorism. Those who think otherwise fail to realize the importance of symbols.”