Editorial Review:

Product Description:
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 Reinvention: 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.

Edited by Raymond W. Gastil and Zoë Ryan.
Conversations and Interviews with Diana Balmori, Joan Ockman, Sherida Paulsen, Lawrence J. Vale, Yoshiko Sato, Jack Money, Arnold Hamilton, Till Schneider, Laurie Hawkinson, Alexander Garvin, Hugh Hardy, Ferhad Mulabegovic, Jon Calame, Nadim Karam, Angus Gavin, Justin O'Connor and James E. Young.

Paperback, 6.25 x 9.5 in., 96 pages, 115 color & 7 b/w illustrations

It's interesting to compare the rebuilding of ground zero to that of other cities, and puts the destruction of the WTC in perspective. Having worked for a large 9/11 relief fund, I know first hand how grieving families are preoccupied with what will become of Ground Zero and even its smallest particles of dust (thought to be the remains of loved ones.) Tying together memorialization and urbanization in this way is a great concept -this NY public space will always be personal for us at many levels.

Having said that, the design is a bit overdone. You don't know where to look with its melange of maps, colors and varying text sizes. Clearly intended for those with a design eye, as opposed to those more interested in the social and political perspectives.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Interesting
It's interesting to compare the rebuilding of ground zero to that of other cities, and puts the destruction of the WTC in perspective. Having worked for a large 9/11 relief fund, I know first hand how grieving families are preoccupied with what will become of Ground Zero and even its smallest particles of dust (thought to be the remains of loved ones.) Tying together memorialization and urbanization in this way is a great concept -this NY public space will always be personal for us at many levels.

Having said that, the design is a bit overdone. You don't know where to look with its melange of maps, colors and varying text sizes. Clearly intended for those with a design eye, as opposed to those more interested in the social and political perspectives.

Rating: - Rebuilding New York
Comparing the rebuilding of New York, with that of other cities, is an interesting concept. Having worked for one of the biggest 9-11 Relief Funds in New York I know that Ground Zero, and what becomes of it, is a very important part of the grieving process for families who lost someone. Even the smallest particles of dust remaining at Ground Zero are thought to be the remains of loved ones whose bodies were incinerated. The book is great for bringing together ideas about memorialization and rebuilding. Also, our whole New York Ground Zero focus is put into perspective.

That said, the design could stand to be a bit friendlier to people interested in the text. You find yourself not knowing where to look - maps, bold colors, varying text sizes. Understandably, though, the people reading the book will be coming at it from a design perspective as opposed to a social/political perspective.

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Rating: - Fascinating Topic... Quick Interesting Read
Information Exchange: How Cities Renew, Rebuild, and Remember is a concise work published by architectural and urban design advocate Van Alen Institute. Instigated by the events of September 11th, this book examines seven cities forced to rebuild after a catastrophic event (be it an act of man or nature). Opening with the unfinished chronicle of New York City's revisioning operation, a genealogy of rebuilding in various cities-Beirut, Berlin, Kobe, Manchester, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Sarajevo-is subsequently presented to illuminate successful strategies, common points of contention, and creative solutions to this monumental, complex, and harrowing task.

Americans, particularly New Yorkers-having endlessly obsessed themselves with the multitudinous accounts of September 11th-may find the book's opening precis of this tragedy to be insensitive in its brevity. The equally short synopses of the 7 other urban reconstructions, however, are entirely new; providing the reader with a unique and interesting information set that, till recently, was relatively obscure and unexamined. Each chapter begins with a short, if not slightly narrow, timeline of the each city's operation-starting with the tragedy and proceeding with a dissection of the various stages of recovery. The timelines then are followed by more illustrative and often insightful interviews or essays written by different contributors.

Through the essays and dialogues several questions surface from one chapter to the next. What begets the most progressive and enlightened designs? How does a public process find a voice in this arena? How should the collective memory of the tragedy be represented in a memorial? Should such an initiative be publicly or privately managed? How does such a daunting project obtain adequate financing? And while it becomes clear through the course of this study that every city is unique and presents its own set of obstacles and invitations, there are recurring solutions-rendering this work required reading for anyone involved the rebuilding of Ground Zero.

Fashioned in the now ubiquitous Bruce Mau graphic style, Information Exchange is a flashy package that reads more like a magazine than a weighty research volume. One could finish this pithy book almost accidentally. And though it does not necessarily come to any definitive conclusions nor does is pursue a single thesis, Information Exchange is a worthwhile sampling. Its theme is interesting, its essays provocative, and its varied perspectives refreshing.