Remember nearly two years ago when I was down in the World Trade Pit for the unveiling of the Freedom Tower cornerstone?
Traditionally, the laying of a cornerstone signals the start of development. Not this time. Yesterday around 6:30 in the morning, it was loaded onto a truck and returned to Long Island where it will be kept in a Plexiglas case, viewable by appointment.
The New York Times explains today in an article by David W. Dunlap, “With Tower Yet to Rise, Cornerstone Leaves Town”:
When the Freedom Tower was redesigned last year because of security concerns, the cornerstone’s location was rendered obsolete. The architects shifted the building’s edge about 40 feet to the west, leaving the cornerstone standing outside the bounds of the reconfigured tower.
Although the stone’s absence is “an acknowledgment that much of what passed for progress at ground zero to date has been longer on symbolism than on substance,” it will also allow the tower’s foundation subcontractor to begin excavating the east side of the tower site. “As it turned out,” concludes Dunlap, “the building could not start until the cornerstone was removed.”