Out of Ground Zero: Case Studies in Urban Reinvention

The events that took place on September 11, 2001, in New York City are the background for a series of essays exploring the response of different cities at different times to natural or man-made disaster. How have cities coped with cataclysmic change in the urban fabric both physically and psychologically? How have they memorialized what they have lost, and how have they imagined their future? What have been the effects, in both the short and long term, of these efforts to rebuild the city?

From the devastating earthquake that shook Lisbon in 1755 to the Great Chicago fire in 1871; from the bombing of Hiroshima to the destruction of Rotterdam and Plymouth during the second World War; from the cities and towns ravaged by the Bosnian War to the symbolism of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem—this book offers varying perspectives on how cities have responded to catastrophic disasters. Following these case studies is a history of destruction and rebuilding in Manhattan, and a reflection on the role of cities in sustaining democratic culture concludes the book. Contributors to this volume include leading urban theorists, architectural historians, cultural critics, architects, and a film-maker.

Joan Ockman is Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the editor of Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology.

Benjamin Barber is Director of The Democracy Collaborative in New York and Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Jihad vs McWorld.

Kenneth Maxwell is Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Inter-American Studies and Director, Latin America Program, Council on Foreign Relations.

Ross Miller is Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Connecticut.

Carola Hein is Assistant Professor, Program in Growth and Structure of Cities, Bryn Mawr College.

Han Meyer is an urban planner and Professor of Urbanism, Technical University, Delft.

Alan Powers is an architectural historian based in London.

Hubertus Siegert is a film-writer and director in Berlin.

Ralph Stern is an architect and architectural historian in New York and Berlin.

Milan Prodanovic is an architect and Professor of Urbanism, University of Novi Sad.

Kanan Makiya is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Brandeis University, and the author of Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq.

Max Page is Assistant Professor of Architecture and History, University of Massachusetts in Amherst.