On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was on the 82nd Floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center, working as a Project Manager in the Engineering Department. I had been an employee of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for fifteen years, all in the Engineering Department, as an architect or PM. During that time, I played key roles in design and construction of the Portal Substation for PATH and the AirTrain systems at both JFK and Newark International Airports.
Within a day or two of narrowly surviving 9/11, several of us regrouped at Journal Square, finding space and doubling up in small cubicles, tepidly beginning to chart a path forward toward rebuilding our home, getting commuters back into New York City, and helping the region move, as PA staff is trained to do!
Along with staff from the Engineering Department and other departments we began to engage with developers, City agencies, consultants, found a home across the street from the site, and…dared to think – now what??
Boldly calling ourselves the Downtown Restoration Program, we began to dream of designing and building a Temporary World Trade Center PATH Station to get transit going again. I was the Engineering Department’s PM for that effort which opened to the public on November 23, 2003, barely 2 years after 9/11.
Once that first step toward normalcy was in place, we were able to dream bigger – images of skyscrapers, public spaces and a spectacular Transportation Hub began to form. I spent 15 years (half of my Port Authority career) working on the WTC recovery and reconstruction efforts.
As time passed, and recovery got into full swing, so, in addition to a full-time job contributing to the reconstruction of the site, I formed, along with fellow WTCC employees, the Memorial Miles charity, With the support of the 9/11 Memorial, we raised funds and pledged to each walk at least one mile a day until the Memorial was opened to the public – which we did!!
I served as a docent at the 9/11 Tribute Center, where my drawings of the reconstruction efforts, “Drawn to the World Trade Center”, were displayed. At the 9/11 Memorial & Museum I spoke many times as part of their “We Were There” series.
After my retirement from the PA (once a PA employee, always a PA employee!), the PA the WTC, as well as the events of 9/11 and subsequent recovery were always a large part of my identity. Almost a decade later, came a request to help the WTC Memorial Golf Club to transform the classic 9/11 PA logo (the 2 Towers with the American flag flying in front of them) into a 3-dimensional sculpture, combined with a rebuilt memorial to those lost in th1993 bombing (a memorial which was destroyed on 9/11 and never rebuilt!). Through great efforts and support at all levels of the PA, that memorial will be in place on the WTC site for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.
