In case folks missed the short but moving reflections of Daniel Libeskind, the architect chosen to design the World Trade Center site, I append the closing paragraphs from his remarks. See Wall St. Journal (3/4/03, p. D8) for more:

"I was very moved from the very beginning in seeing those slurry walls. Despite the tragedy, despite the attack, despite what happened on the site, they stood. And these are the walls that speak of democracy. And I came across, just coincidentally, a passage in the Bible which said "Freedom carved on stone tablets." That’s indeed what the slurry walls are. They are the foundations which remained. They testify as eloquently as the Constitution itself to the value of individual life and the freedoms and powers of democracy.

"The high-rise building spirals upwards to the high point, 1,776 feet. The date of independence is important. It’s not a date, a number that will ever be surpassed in world history. The structure is a composition that glows, reaffirms the skyline. And I remember the song that I learned a long time ago about the American flag which said "With freedom’s soil beneath our feet, and freedom’s flag high above in the sky." And I think that’s really what the site is: It’s from the depth upwards through the streets to the sky."

Not bad for a 21st-century architect. As for his design for the site, I agree more with the function than with the form he came up with.