The designs incorporate a memorial to nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks alongside open space and office buildings.

None of the six proposals include buildings as high as the former 110-storey twin towers.

The detailed plans appear on the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation website.

Senator Hillary Clinton is taking a leading role in developing the plans which should be narrowed down to three by September.

The final design may take elements from different plans.

What do you think of the plans? Do they reach a good balance between honouring the victims and regenerating commercial space?

Thank you for your e-mails. This debate is now closed.

Your reaction

It is still a commercial site and we need it regenerated for the sake of the local economy

Phoebe, USA

Of the six I prefer number six, the Promenade. It's simple, neat and it has a reasonable amount of space for a memorial (no.4, the Garden, is hideously ugly). What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that this was a commercial site. It is still a commercial site and we need it regenerated for the sake of the local economy and sorry, but a big empty patch of grass just won't do the job. There will be a memorial on the site, nobody is suggesting otherwise, but it is flat out insane to demand that the entire area should be anything other than what it was before.
Phoebe, USA

The plans for the World Trade Center lack imagination and vision and are not worthy of any consideration.
Kathy, USA

Post 9/11, the spirit of compassion for all who died and determination to stand resolute in the face of terror must be reflected in some way. The beams of light could be a permanent feature. A graceful structure built to modern standards of safety and incorporating a memorial to those who suffered there would be good.
Elizabeth Gammell, England

All the proposals lack imagination. There is no grand vision, only ordinary bureaucratic solutions. There should be a nationwide or international competition for ideas rather than sneaking in mediocre designs.
Nik, USA

If you please everyone you will succeed in creating mediocrity

Oli, UK

I liked the lights; I thought they were stunning, even on TV. Simple yet powerful. The plans aren't worthy of much comment - they are merely variations on the theme of mixing redevelopment with memorial space. There are too many fingers in this pie and a single vision is required for the project. There's too much emphasis on pleasing everybody and it's impossible to ask all of NYC's near eight million inhabitants their opinion.

When major tasks such as this are organised by disparate committees they usually fail - an example from the UK would be the Millennium Dome which was an almost unmitigated disaster, and in the US, the memorial for WWII in Washington which has taken 50 years to be approved and is completely unimaginative. If you aim to please everyone you will succeed only in creating mediocrity. What NYC needs is something striking, compelling and controversial, and much more in keeping with its character.
Oli, UK

Recent examples are very conservative and lack imagination

Stephen Chan, USA

I don't particularly like any of the plans as they exist currently. American commemorative architecture hasn't had much innovation since the construction of the Vietnam war memorial in Washington. Recent examples are very conservative and lack imagination. The bold statements that could be made through architecture are held back. I suspect by conservative politicians who are too meek to stick their necks out for anything except classical designs.
Stephen Chan, USA

The six proposals are all an exercise in "fitting" the development programme requirements on the site. None deal with the need to create an icon for a city so keenly in need of reassurance and evidence of pride.
Arun, USA

The Port Authority wants 10% more commercial space than was lost in the destruction. Whatever is finally decided, it is my hope that greed will not be the defining factor. For posterity, the Vietnam war memorial would be an excellent model to work from.
Paul Westlake, USA (NYC)

I like the Memorial Square plans the most

Michael Canaris, Australia

I like the Memorial Square plans the most. Rather than have a number of towers jut out of it, though, I would rather there be a single building of around 25 stories framing the square, and for a fitting memorial I would like an Eiffel Tower-style structure to jut out of this building. With modern techniques, one could build this structure to a gigantic scale - I would suggest that for the sake of symbolism this tower reaches 911 metres above the ground.
Michael Canaris, Australia

Having six solutions all of a muchness does not seem to be the result of a truly creative response to the situation. Each entry seems to leave a memorial garden space but this is not the only way of reverently providing for this aspect of the site. What is needed here is also a great vision and this is as much a part of the memorial as a garden.
TJ Hornbeam, UK

The designs are wimpish

Mark, USA

The designs are pathetically wimpish. They are trying to preserve this site as some kind of cemetery or shrine. It's an outrage. That's not what New York is about.
Mark, USA

I think the plans are disappointing; they appear rather meek and subdued. A new sense of pride needs to be injected into the city. Little effort is required to put a patch of grass where the towers stood. One can be visionary and sensitive at the same time. It is often the most simple of memorials which are the most effective; take for example the Cenotaph in London which marks the deaths of countless men and women who fought in the front lines.
Gearoid O'Connor, Ireland

They lack all the personality and punctuation of the original towers

Matt, USA

The six proposals represent a dismal retreat to the conservative and politically correct. Have Americans lost their grit? They lack all the personality and punctuation of the original Towers. We need to recreate symbols of the American spirit, not memorials that hover 10 metres above ground, but visual icons that dauntlessly soar 450 metres and beyond as testaments to American spirit.
Matt, USA

I think a magnificent structure of the size and scale of the original towers with a suitable park/memorial should be built and it should be used to house the United Nations. The juxtaposition of the greatest commercial trading area in the world set against the HQ for peace, hope, tolerance and freedom would clearly define the strongest and most culturally diverse city/nation in the world.
David B, England

I find it difficult to come a conclusion on this one. I think rebuilding something to the same height as the original towers would be stupid - it would have taken about four hours to evacuate everyone from those buildings. I side with the idea not to build on the site. A memorial, a quiet place to think and reflect with trees and benches and the like, even to enjoy.
Amanda, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

What better way to show strength than something made of stone? A stone Pyramid to last 10,000 years. I think that that would be much more fitting than any new building or park.
Abdul, UK

It's part of the spirit of this great country

Bill Hough, Executive Editor, Team Twin Towers, New York, USA

Putting up an uninspired development, such as the current proposals, doesn't cut it. We feel the best course of action would be to re-build the Twin Towers either the same height or build them as the tallest buildings in the world while incorporating an appropriate memorial. It's part of the spirit of this great country to rebuild bigger and better than ever.
Bill Hough, Executive Editor,
Team Twin Towers, New York, USA

The first and only time I visited NYC, I was completely awestruck by the Twin Towers. They were by far the defining feature of the city's skyline, toward which my eyes perpetually gravitated. Looking up at them from the plaza beneath, and looking down at the rest of the city from the observation deck above, almost felt like a spiritual experience. That was two weeks before the towers were destroyed. For the impressive character of the city to be anything like it was, I think structures equally as grand and awe-inspiring should be built in their stead.
Pruvy, USA

The site should be made into a memorial, not another skyscraper. Perhaps with flags of the country each person was born in and a granite replica of the twin towers. Ground Zero should be made into a memorial like that of Pearl Harbor.
Brenda, USA

To build another tower would be an insult

Keith Warwick, UK

They should build an underground shopping centre below, with a memorial garden above. Something beautiful and peaceful. To build another tower would be an insult.
Keith Warwick, UK

This is America and we can heal. I know it will take time, but we will win. The plans should include a plaza to honour the lives that were lost on 9/11 as well as in 1993, a children's centre, restaurants, shopping centres, a parking lot and a hotel like the original.
Bob, USA

A living museum should be incorporated in the design

N. Dusablon, California, USA

A memorial in the form of a living museum should be incorporated in the design. Taking a cue from the victim profiles shown in the NY Times since the attack, visitors to the memorial museum would be able to see photos and read about the people who were murdered. That would keep their memory alive and would be preferable to a cold wall like the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC or a statue-type memorial.
N. Dusablon, California, USA

Owners of any structure as tall as the original towers would face the problem of people not wishing to work in the towers for fear of what happened before. The designs that have been revealed today I don't like, but I'm sure after they are built I would get used to them.
Brad, New Zealand

There was no debate about re-building the Pentagon - build NEW towers ASAP!
Alan, Singapore

Corporate America is not the image that should be at Ground Zero

Stephen G, Tyne and Wear, UK

Rebuilding the towers to portray corporate America is not the image that should be at Ground Zero. There should be a new building or even open parkland portraying a theme of remembrance for the many thousands of people from some 44 nations who lost their lives on 11 September. And especially members of the New York emergency services who gave their lives in attempt to save others.
Stephen G, Tyne and Wear, UK

I feel the twin pier proposal would be a more fitting monument - a place of peace in the city that never sleeps.
Craig H, UK

The folks over in New York City need to take a cue from us here in Oklahoma who witnessed tragedy on April 19, 1995... build the Trade Center in another place within Manhattan and save the spot where the twin towers stood to be turned to a memorial. If we in Oklahoma can honour those who died by not rebuilding in the same spot where tragedy struck, so can they.
Pebbles S, Oklahoma, USA

Putting anything on that site that is less than 110 stories high would be a failure of the American spirit

Brian Patrick Keane, USA

I sympathise with the families of the victims, but frankly, for me putting anything on that site that is less than 110 stories high would be a failure of the American spirit. A more fitting memorial would be on the top of a new set of towers. The new World Trade Center shouldn't be a mere replica of the old, it should be something soaring, indomitable and lofty. That would be the best comment, and final word to all terrorists and close minded zealots.
Brian Patrick Keane, USA

Money talks unfortunately. This is expensive land which will be built upon for future profit.
Angela Katelis, England

People toss around the phrase "money talks" like it's a bad thing. Yes, money talks. But because the World Trade Center has served as an abstract symbol for all of Western civilisation, I would like to see a complex built with five (preferably 110 story) buildings erected in the outline of a star. In the centre could reside an open air memorial to the victims of the attacks. This would serve to replenish valuable real estate, honouring the lives lost on that fateful day, and would celebrate the ingenuity and strength of American and Western civilisation.
Don Seymour, USA

I'm disappointed that developers aren't planning more skyscrapers

Stacey Turner, USA/UK

While I'm disappointed that developers aren't planning more skyscrapers for the site, I'm happy that it will be redeveloped. What better way to show al-Qaeda that they can't defeat America, than to rebuild the site rather than turning into a glib, oozy memorial which would probably be hopelessly tacky anyway? I disagree that this is the almighty dollar talking. But what people have to realise is that sixteen acres of real estate on Manhattan island might as well be built on gold. It is unreasonable to expect it to remain undeveloped. New Yorkers already have Central Park!
Stacey Turner, USA/UK

The old plans should be used but modified such as making the buildings taller or making them round. Also, more expensive insulation and better building techniques should be used. The steel in the towers buckled under the heat and that was due to cheap, old, and inferior building techniques. The building should have more protection against terrorists, such security sites on top of the buildings and walls in front of the towers.
JMN, USA

Physical size is not the measure of a memorial

Louis B Massano, USA

In Amsterdam, near the Van Gogh Museum, is one of the most affecting memorials to Hitler's victims I've seen. It is a powerful, but not an oversized tribute. It shows that physical size is not the measure of a memorial. One mistake we Americans have made is to build too many outsized, unoriginal memorials to war victims, which do not honour them any more than a less spectacular but more thoughtful one would. Some of the DC monuments are architectural mistakes which have harmed the US capital's distinctiveness.
Louis B Massano, USA

The sooner rebuilding starts, the sooner the wounds will begin to heal

Terry Jones, UK

In a previous Talking Point on this question two or three weeks ago, many respondents favoured a blend of rebuilding the site, but with an area set aside to commemorate those who lost their lives. The recent proposals seem to meet those sentiments and ought to satisfy all parties. Let's hope the final say is not too far away, for the sooner rebuilding starts, the sooner the wounds will begin to heal.
Terry Jones, UK

The developers should build statues of the victims and their relatives looking out towards the Statue of Liberty. There should also be an area of grass and trees for people to come and relax, with activities for the children. What they shouldn't do is build huge buildings again. They will simply be an eyesore.
David Stallard, England

Build something spectacular that will give New Yorkers the pride they felt when they saw the Trade Center

Kevin, USA

As an American I feel that it is absolutely necessary to rebuild replicas of what once stood for American and world prosperity. As many have said before we must not continue to dwell on the horrible act that occurred. We need to move on and grow emotionally and economically. The best solution for this is to build something spectacular that will give New Yorkers the pride they felt when they saw the Trade Center in the skyline and bring international business back to the lower west side of Manhattan once again.
Kevin, USA