The St
Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church before 911 was little more than a painted over
modified row house with a tiny belfry tucked away in the corner of parking lot
near West Street.
After some
much rustling, renegotiations, rearranging of maps and priorities, the new St
Nicholas will stand above and near the WTC memorials in their park.
If my
calculations are correct, the new St. Nicholas will sit where the old artificial
second story concrete plaza attached to Bankers Trust Plaza used to stand. That
building was the “black widow”shrouding in protective netting years after 911
and its further history of death, of firemen, and incompetency, delay and corruption in tearing the damaged building
down for years and years. Almost for the building like being buried alive and
waiting for the last girder to be salvaged and other life to flourish in its absence.
They were
going to put the hang over structure, appendage trading floor, at this spot of
a new stock exchange maybe a decade ago. Now a beautiful piece of classic
architecture in the form of a Greek church will accent the whole mess of buildings,
memorials, museums, commerce in social city intercourse of New York City –
where the old World Trade Center used to stand.
Red Circle - New St. Nicholas Church Yellow Line - Foot Bridge Across Liberty Street |
(The church btw will no doubt sit where once a food kiosk stood on the sterile plaza of potted trees and where in the good weather months, Chinese food was sold in the that kiosk near the footbridge over Liberty Street to the old WTC and supplied by the Mao Tai Restaurant, located at the second floor rear of Bankers Trust Plaza.)
.