Information Exchange: How Cities Renew, Rebuild and Remember

by Zoe Ryan (Editor), Alexander Garvin

After the attacks on the World Trade Center, the question of how cities renew, rebuild, and remember has become ever more pertinent. By placing the event within a global, cultural, and historical context, and examining the ways in which cities around the world have rebuilt in the wake of natural and man-made disasters, Van Alen Institute offers some possible answers to the question. Information Exchange explores a range of temporary and permanent public art and architecture projects built in the damaged cities of Berlin, Beirut, Kobe, Manchester, Sarajevo, Oklahoma City, and San Francisco by such firms as Germany's Schneider + Schumacher Architekten, New York's Eisenman Architects, England's EDAW Ltd., Oklahoma City's Butzer Design Partnership, and Sarajevo's Ferhad Mulabegovic. At the center of Information Exchange is a roundtable discussion, “Retread or How Cities Change after Disaster,” with participants including the director of the Temple Hoyne Bell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University, the chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Also featured are interviews with designers, artists, journalists, cultural programmers, and academics; comprehensive historical narratives in the form of timelines; photographs of the cities' new buildings, including the Nojima Fault Museum in Kobe, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe; and renderings of upcoming projects, master plans outlining developments, and maps to help further illustrate the various projects in each city.

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2003