Sky-high WTC finalists chosen

Both designs feature structures higher than the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers.

TALKING POINT
" The last thing New York needs is the addition of another enormous glass-and-steel monstrosity "
Will, UK

The two firms behind the plans are Libeskind, which designed Berlin's Jewish Museum, and the international Think team, led by New York-based architects Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz.

The finalists were announced on Tuesday, with the final choice expected sometime this month.

Nine proposals for redeveloping the former site of the twin towers were unveiled last December, after previous proposals were rejected as being unimaginative.

Victims' memorial

Libeskind's proposal features a 541-metre (1,776-foot) spire overlooking several smaller steel towers.

The Think team put forward three ideas. The proposal now in the running features two decorative steel towers, reaching 507.5 m (1,655 ft).

TALLEST BUILDINGS

Malaysia's Petronas towers are 452m-tall (1,483 ft).

The question of what to do with the 16-acre (6.4 hectare) site in lower Manhattan is a controversial one, with opinion differing wildly.

At one extreme are those who say no development is appropriate as the area is a mass grave. At the other are those who advocate building an even taller tower as an act of defiance against terrorism.

Although the two finalists have both proposed soaring structures, neither plan involves office space extending all the way to the top.

Both models include an area where a memorial might be built for the 2,792 people who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks.

A specific design for the memorial is expected to be chosen later this year in a separate competition.

The decision over which building gets the go ahead lies with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Whichever design they choose is expected to take about a decade to build.