Korea towers world trade center exploding
A mockup shows two soaring skyscrapers connected in the middle by a “pixelated cloud” that evoked the clouds of debris that erupted from the iconic World Trade Center towers after terrorists flew planes into them.
“What the hell were these architects thinking?” asked the headline on a Gizmodo article about the plans for the Seoul apartment buildings.
MVRDV, which is based in the Netherlands, insisted in a statement that it didn’t notice the uncanny similarity that struck many observers instantly.
“MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud project evokes regarding 9/11,” it wrote on its website.
“It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt.”
Jim Riches, a retired FDNY deputy chief whose son was killed on 9/11, said he didn’t believe the architects.
“I think it’s a total lie and they have no respect for the people who died that day,” he said. “They’re crossing a line.
“It looks just like the towers imploding,” he said. “I think they’re trying to sensationalize it. It’s a cheap way to get publicity.”
Despite their regrets, the architects did not indicate any plans to alter the design of the buildings — one 850 feet tall, the other 970 feet tall — which are expected to be finished by 2015.
In an ironic twist, the towers will be at the entrance of the Yongsan Dreamhub project, which was designed by Daniel Libeskind, who created the master plan of the rebuilt World Trade Center.